Laurie Young

Laurie Young
Director of Aging and Economic Security

Laurie Young, Ph.D. was hired as the Aging policy analyst at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in 2008. Prior to joining The Task Force, Dr. Young was the Executive Director of the Older Women’s League (OWL), a national grassroots member organization focused on women and aging. For four years she was the Senior Vice-president of the National Mental Health Association. Laurie is an experienced trainer having travelled the country training local area service providers on developing state-of-the-art community based services for adults with serious mental illnesses. She continued her training advocacy again, cross-country in educating the public, service, state and local advocates on issues critical to women and aging. In, 2005, she created community forums in twelve cities on “Social Security Matters," to educate and advocate against the administrative plan to privatize Social Security.

Laurie’s career continues to focus on advocacy and public policy on the local, state, and national levels. In 2005, she was a delegate at the White House Conference on Aging, and a panelist for The Task Force summit, Making Room for All. She continues to pursue legislative and policy changes to enhance the lives of LGBT people through her work at the Task Force, and on April 22, 2010 led the first congressional briefing on LGBT aging issues on Capitol Hill. She currently travels the country to educate mainstream aging audiences and LGBT audiences on the recent Task Force Policy Institute publication, Outing Age 2010.