Lesa Young works with the McSilver Institute-led Managed Care Technical Assistance Center (MCTAC), where she manages resource and training development.
Young previously worked at the Harlem Children’s Zone as a coordinator for social services, and developed a perinatal service program that provided childbirth education classes, lactation support, and new parent support groups for the community. She is also a certified doula, lactation counselor, and childbirth educator. Young continues to work in a volunteer capacity for various birth justice, prison abolition, and mutual aid organizing in NYC and across the state.
Young received her MSW degree from Fordham University, specializing in macro practice. Prior to her graduate studies, she was a Peace Corps volunteer in West Africa, and has worked professionally with survivors of domestic violence, refugees and asylum seekers, and older adult populations. Young speaks four languages and is passionate about social justice and culturally and trauma-informed practices.