A collaborative leader who has aligned with colleagues and external partners to grow enrollment and reshape the daily experience for the community college students of today, Dr. Kristine Young is entering her second decade as president of SUNY Orange.

Coming off the College’s 75^th anniversary year in 2024-25, Young continues to employ strategic approaches to improving support services, acquiring transformational federal and state grants, and blending the best elements of Guided Pathways principles with the College’s historic academic strengths. Now in her 11^th year at the College, her leadership has positioned SUNY Orange to better serve students and the community-at-large. New degree and microcredential programs are creating pathways to career opportunities for students, and the College has recently expanded its renowned nursing program on the Newburgh campus by 50 percent to help address growing shortages of skilled nurses in the Hudson Valley. An expansion and relocation of the Radiologic Technology program to the Newburgh campus is on the horizon as well.

While the College’s degree programs remain as strong as ever, students have greater access to academic assistance along with a wide range of health and wellness programs. SUNY Orange continues to “Move Students from Surviving the Thriving” via its PROSPERAR programming funded by a U.S. Department of Education Title V grant that supports recruitment and retention. The College is a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) and is designated as Military Friendly. Grant-funded support initiatives like the Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) and Advancing Success in Associate Pathways (ASAP) program are supporting students by helping them bypass obstacles that have previously hindered their progress.

Transfer agreements with four-year higher education institutions (SUNY Empire, Pace, New Paltz, SUNY Cortland and Mount St. Mary College, for example) have created additional opportunities for students to advance their education beyond SUNY Orange. Partnerships with local businesses including LEGOLAND New York Resort and Amazon are expanding access to SUNY Orange courses for those employees.

As a result, SUNY Orange enrollment has increased for 11 successive academic sessions (from Spring 2023 through Fall 2025) while national enrollment trends for community colleges have rebounded more slowly in the wake of a decade of declines.

While academics are one pillar of the community college mission, Young is positioning SUNY Orange to more robustly address its role in supporting regional economic development. Informed by community partners, the College is identifying and delivering workforce certification and training programs, and other educational services that lead to sustainable wages and employment growth for area residents. The College has supported the formation of Orange County FoodTEC in order to create a workforce and skills development training and education center at SUNY Orange that ultimately will combine a commercial kitchen, classroom space and training event space into a flagship hub for the College’s food, beverage and hospitality workforce program.

SUNY grant funding has helped the College launch a successful Certified Pharmacy Technician training program that graduated all 15 students from its first cohort and has received additional funding to provide the course to English Language Learners. A state grant of $500,000, secured by Senator James Skoufis, is allowing the College to roll out a condensed, accredited 12-month paramedic training program this year, and additional grants are supporting emergency medical technician (EMT) trainings offered by the College.

As SUNY Orange celebrated its 75^th anniversary last year, it simultaneously revised its Strategic Master Plan (for 2025 to 2028) and its Facilities Master Plan. The facilities plan lays out roadmaps to capital improvements and creative re-imagining of spaces to support a forward-thinking College. Meanwhile, the Strategic Plan establishes four focus areas to help SUNY Orange better serve its students, employees and community-at-large. During Young’s tenure, SUNY Orange has secured more than $15 million in grants and other funding from local, state and federal agencies to support its strategic initiatives and student success.

Young is also leading SUNY Orange’s investigation into how it can harness artificial intelligence (AI), particularly its use in the academic setting, its influence upon teaching and its potential impact across a variety of sectors. The College is simultaneously positioning itself to teach and train businesses wishing to leverage AI for their employees and business operations

A native of Northeastern Pennsylvania, Young came to SUNY Orange following a 17-year tenure at Parkland College in Champaign, Ill., having served as an associate professor of chemistry, the department chair for natural sciences, and the vice president for academic services. She earned her bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pa., and her master’s degree in chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her doctorate degree is from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Young was president of NYCCAP, the New York Community College Presidents, during the 2023-24 and 2024-25 academic years. She continues to serve as co-chair of the Mid-Hudson Regional Economic Development Council, having been named to that post in February 2022 following five years of service on the Council. She is in the midst of a three-year term (2024-2027) on the American Association of Community Colleges' Commission on Structured Pathways. From 2019-22, Young served on the AACC Board of Directors, holding membership on its executive committee as well as leading two commissions.

She lives in the Town of Wallkill with her wife, Cari.