Mike Young
Mike is a cultural anthropologist, son of an El Salvadoran immigrant, and a screaming word artist with a passion for advocacy and social change through uplift. Mike moved to South Carolina from California in 2011 to study cultural anthropology at UofSC and conducted research with remote indigenous communities in the jungles of Guatemala spending almost an entire year living with them participating in typical daily life activities to better understand their experiences. Earning the trust of entire communities, being the only outsider, and collaborating in ways that supported them in ways that worked best for them became second nature. Mike got his masters in 2013 and after reaching ABD status in his doctorate program finishing all his coursework with a 4.0 throughout his graduate school career, he decided to leave academia. Mike wasn’t interested in only studying community, how people connect, share, support, and understand one another. He is passionate about putting these principles into action and positively impact the livelihoods of others. Mike has also been a consultant with Everyday Life Consulting specializing in Health Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, Cultural Humility through custom tailored training and capacity building for professional, nonprofit, and service providing workforces.
Previously Mike was the Director of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion at the Center for Community Health Alignment and PASOs under the Arnold School at Public Health at the University of South Carolina. Before that Mike was the Co-Interim Executive Director and Director of Capacity Building at PASOs where he worked to strengthen South Carolina’s Latino communities by overseeing and supporting a statewide team of Community Health Workers/Promotores and strengthening networks in their ability to address the strengths and needs of the community through trainings, technical support, and customized support for partners and coalitions. Mike is also a Fellow of the Diversity Leaders Initiative at the Riley Institute, a Board of Directors Member for South Carolina Free Clinic Association, Steering Committee member for Alianza Spartanburg, and a member of several equity and inclusion coalitions, and regularly gets invited by state, regional, national, and local governmental and nongovernmental entities to speak about diversity, equity, inclusion, implicit bias, anti-racism, and other social issues..