Bio

Tamara V. Young, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Educational Leadership, Policy, and Human Development at North Carolina State University. Her research examines how educational programs, policies, and practices are implemented, what makes them effective, and the conditions that shape their success or failure. Her scholarship spans educational policy and politics, STEM education initiatives, and the organizational and contextual factors that influence implementation and outcomes. Throughout this work, she focuses on generating evidence that informs educational decision-making and strengthens policy and practice.

Dr. Young has extensive experience collaborating on large-scale, externally funded research and evaluation projects. In partnership with faculty in NC State’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, she serves as co-principal investigator on a $2 million National Science Foundation grant supporting the Interdisciplinary Biochemistry Master’s Program (IBMP) through NSF’s Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) program. In this role, she contributes to program implementation, student support, and efforts to expand access to and success in STEM graduate education.

Her research and evaluation work also addresses pressing issues in K–12 education. She served as co-principal investigator on A Comprehensive Evaluation of North Carolina’s Supplemental Salary Fund, a state-funded study examining the implementation and effects of supplemental pay policies on teacher recruitment and retention. She also collaborated with College of Education faculty and researchers affiliated with NC State’s Friday Institute to evaluate North Carolina’s Advanced Teaching Roles initiative, contributing evidence to statewide discussions about teacher leadership, compensation, and workforce sustainability.

Reflecting NC State’s land-grant mission, Dr. Young is committed to connecting research with practice. Her work includes helping organizations develop logic models, assess program implementation and outcomes, and use evaluation findings to guide planning, improvement, and decision-making. Through these partnerships, she seeks to make evaluation both rigorous and practical, ensuring that evidence serves the needs of educators, organizational leaders, and the communities they serve.

Courses Taught

• ELP 344                School and Society (undergraduate preservice teachers)
• ELP 780                Theory and Practice in Educational Evaluation
• ELP 741/795a      Implementation Research and Evaluation in Education
• ELP 735                 Policy Research in Education
• ELP 795b              Academic Writing for Graduate Students in Education
• ELP 795c               Educational Issues and Policies: A Multidisciplinary Perspective
• EAC/ELP 795d    Continuous Improvement in Education
• EAC/ELP 795e     Theories in Education Research
• EAC/ELP 795f     AI in K-12 and Higher Education: Applications in Teaching, Leadership, Research, and Evaluation
• EAC/ELP 795g    Applied Educational Evaluation
• ED 710/ELP 741 Quantitative Research in Education (univariate and bivariate statistics)
• ED 711/ELP 742  Quantitative Research in Education (linear and logistic/probit regression)
• ELP 891/EAC 803 Problems in Research Design (i.e., dissertation proposal development)

Area(s) of Expertise

- Implementation of Educational Programs, Policies, and Practices
- Evaluation of Educational Programs, Policies, and Practices
- The Design, Implementation, and Utilization of Logic Models in Educational Policy and Practice