Doctoral Student Focus | Brad Young

"I chose this program because it was a good fit for me. I have a lot of experience in both the business community and the educational community, and this doctoral program lets me focus on the leadership aspects of my experience."

Brad Young, DOL

Program

Organizational Leadership (Doctorate)
Business Administration (Doctorate)

Department

Education

Graduate School
Graduate Student

Research
Education

03/03/2021

Brad W. Young, CFP/CTFA is President & CEO of Maryland Financial Planners, LTD. He has over 30 years’ experience in the trust and investment field. Brad specializes in financial and estate planning, investment management, trust administration as well as handling investments for retirement and 401(k) plans. He holds an AA from Frederick Community College in Business, a BA from the University of Maryland at College Park in Economics and an MBA from Frostburg State University. He has completed Cannon Financial Institute Trust School and Northwestern Graduate Trust School.

Brad is very active in the community. He is currently in his 10th year on the Frederick County Board of Education having been elected three times. He served 15 years on the Board of Trustees of Frederick Community College. He also served as Chair of Maryland Association of Community College trustees and the National Association of Community College trustees. Brad is on the adjunct faculty for Mount Saint Mary’s University teaching Finance classes for the past 18 years. Brad also serves on the Boards of Heartbreakers fastpitch Softball, Fishing Creek Rod & Gun Club, I Believe in Me, Love for Lochlin and the Frederick Health Hospital planned gifts committee. He also was an assistant coach of softball at Hood College for eight years.

Why did you choose Hood College and this program?

I chose this program because it was a good fit for me. I have a lot of experience in both the business community and the educational community, and this doctoral program lets me focus on the leadership aspects of my experience. I specifically choose the Hood program because it was local, and I have great respect for Hood College and its role in the Frederick community.

What do you enjoy most about being at Hood College?

I enjoy that it is local. I love Frederick so much and I really have always loved both the fact that we have three great colleges right here in Frederick County with Hood, the Mount and Frederick community College. I enjoy just walking around the campus which is so close to the middle of Frederick!

Tell us about I Believe in Me Inc. and how it came to receive the Invest in Me Grant.

I started working with Aje Hill, the Executive Director of I Believe in Me about three years ago. Our relationship started in a controversial way. Aje in his youth had run astray with the law. He served time in prison and came out and had two choices, go back to the life he led before his jail time and probably end up back in jail, or change his life and become a productive member of society.

Aje chose the latter and started his non-profit IBM to mentor young at-risk youth to not go down the path that he had chosen. Like many former felons, he faced many obstacles. As he started mentoring youth, he had a no-trespass on school property that had been filed against him in prior years. At one of our Board of Education meetings, a few parents of children he was mentoring came and talked about the injustice of his ban.

After the meeting, I reached out to Aje and helped him get that no-trespass removed and we became friends and I started helping him with IBM. In March of 2020, when the pandemic set in, we could no longer meet in person with the youth. We noticed that many of their families were lacking food. We started doing food distributions in Frederick in March of 2020 and have since served over 68,000 people food.

We are currently holding food drops every Monday in front of the Home Depot on Route 40 where we serve over 250 cars every week. I found out about this grant for financial advisors that are helping in the community and applied for a grant. We were one of 6 charities selected from the over 125 applications and received a grant of $20,000!

How do you think attending Hood College Graduate School has helped your career?

I am in a unique situation where I am nearing the end of my career in the financial field. I have done it for over 30 years and love what I do but am looking to make a transition in my life in the next five or so years. I have a great love for education and will look for an opportunity to give back to the community in some way involving education. This Doctorate degree will make sure that I am well prepared for whatever that opportunity might be.

Inspired by Brad's story to #GOFURTHER in your educational & career pursuits? Learn more about Hood College’s Doctorate of Organizational Leadership by clicking here.