Karen Young

Karen was raised in a small town in Northern Arizona where she graduated from high school at the top of her class (of four). She met entrepreneur Gail Richardson, Founder of La Petit Academy and Prescription Learning, in 1980 at the company’s Teacher’s Conference. He convinced her to move to Phoenix and she has enjoyed engaging professional pursuits and the magnificent Sonoran Desert since. Professional highlights include tenure as Sr. Vice President of Educational Management Group, the largest provider of educational services via digital satellite in the country (Heller Report, 1996), President of National School Conference Institute (NSCI), President and Founder of Learning 24/7, President and Founder of A+ Educators and Certified Professional Dog Trainer.

She is committed to creating resources that give K-12 students the experiences and skills they need to thrive in the tech economy. Karen has gathered action research data from more than 18,000 classrooms and has a firm grasp of what it will take to transform America’s classrooms into environments that nurture an engineering mindset.

Karen is currently focused on K-Employment career pathways for the tech sector and resources that bring true science to the elementary classroom. Karen and her Labradoodle Whiskey Bear (pictured) are active urban mushers. She and her husband John share their home with four large dogs, a cat who likes to shower every day, and a colony of uninvited rock squirrels who have a laser-like focus on trying to raid their garden…