Kathy Young Leaving Hertz Role to Focus on Local Community

For the past 13 years, Kathy Young has filled an essential leadership role at the Hertz Foundation, serving in positions from applications administrator to chief operating officer, her job evolving along with the organization.

In every position, and particularly in her current role as executive director of the Hertz Fellowship program, Young has shepherded new fellows, fostered connections, and cultivated community, helping bring scientific innovation to the world. Now she is shifting gears, stepping down from Hertz in December and concentrating on the local San Francisco Bay Area community. 

Young will focus on two roles: CEO of the Tri-Valley Nonprofit Alliance, an organization she cofounded in 2014, and COO of Quest Science Center, which is committed to engaging people of all ages and backgrounds in the exploration of science. Her involvement at the Hertz Foundation has led to these new directions. 

“Tri-Valley Nonprofit Alliance started from a need I had at Hertz—knowing that there were other nonprofits in the area that might have a solution to a problem I was trying to solve, but not knowing who they were,” Young said. The Alliance supports nonprofits throughout the San Francisco Bay Area by bringing organizations together to share industry knowledge and best practices.   

At Quest Science Center, founded by a group of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory retirees and community leaders, Young will use her experience working with the scientific community to help the nascent organization bring a new science center to downtown Livermore. 

“We have all this science happening in Livermore and the surrounding area, but it’s not spread out into the community. One of our goals at Quest is to connect everybody to the value and importance of science, and specifically to reach out to underserved communities,” Young said. 

While Young is excited about devoting her time to these roles, leaving the Hertz Foundation—and especially Hertz Fellows—is not easy. One constant in her career at Hertz has been her involvement with new fellows, from before they even receive the fellowship. 

“The hardest part for me is leaving the relationships,” Young said. “I’ve watched fellows come in, all nervous at the first interview. Then they get the fellowship, have careers, get married, and have babies—they grow up and are such wonderful, wonderful human beings. I’ve really enjoyed working with them. I feel like they’re all my kids.” 

For many years she has overseen and worked closely with applicants through the interview process, visiting three different venues during the first round interviews to check in on the 30 or more applicants, provide a reassuring presence, and ensure a smooth process.

“Collaboration with Kathy on the selection process has been an excellent partnership,” said Philip Welkhoff, Hertz Senior Fellowship Interviewer, a member of the board of directors, and director for malaria at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “It started when I was interviewing about half of the finalists each year. All interviewers and applicants would end up in the right city and the right interview room. And we always seemed to have fortunate weather when Kathy organized an interview weekend, even in Chicago in December.”

After the selection process, she monitored progress and assisted fellows throughout their time in school. Her accomplishments also include building out the Fellowship and Programs Council and enhancing the Hertz community through launching the mentoring and in-school representatives programs, organizing events, and managing the thesis prize selection.

“Kathy has left an indelible impact on the foundation as well as the Hertz community,” said Robbee Kosak, president of the Hertz Foundation. “During her tenure at Hertz, she personally welcomed over 175 fellows into our community. Her dedication to all fellows’ success, personally as well as professionally, has helped shape the Hertz community into the unique and valuable network that it has become for so many. Moreover, she leaves a big hole among the staff team. While we are excited to cheer her on in her next ventures, she will be deeply missed.”

Young has served as “the head and the heart” of the foundation’s connection with fellows, said Hertz Fellow Carol Burns, chair of the Fellowship and Programs Council and executive officer to the deputy director for science, technology, and engineering at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

“Kathy has been the head in the sense that her knowledge of fellows is encyclopedic. She not only knows who our fellows are, where they went to school, and what they studied, but also their interests, strengths and weaknesses, and personal considerations impacting their fellowship. As the heart, she would always engage in these discussions with a proud smile on her face, as if discussing her own children, and be able to relate stories of how each fellow was doing, and what they hoped to do next,” Burns said. 

Young put her knowledge to use by connecting fellows with one another whenever she thought their acquaintance would be mutually beneficial.

“Anything I could do to connect fellows to each other in a meaningful way, I would do,” she said. 

A favorite aspect of the job was bringing the new fellows together for the first time at orientation. “There’s always an automatic mutual respect among fellows. It’s like when they get here, they realize, oh, these are my people. It’s just an incredible thing to watch,” she said.

That sense of community is what sets the Hertz Fellowship apart, Young said. “We’re not just awarding the fellowship and saying here’s a check, go do your thing. If any fellow needs help, the foundation or another fellow will be there to help them. That’s one of the things I’ve really appreciated being a part of. I truly hope that continues, and I expect it will.” 

Burns would like to see Young’s impact on the foundation continue as well. 

“Kathy has an unwavering empathy for our fellows, and as a result, has really been the face of the foundation in many respects to in-school fellows,” she said. “I hope we can maintain her sense of empathy and engagement in future council activities.”

Welkhoff concurs. “Kathy has been a great example and thought partner for how we can be better as a foundation, a community, and as individual fellows,” he said. “I will miss working and partnering with her, and I am deeply grateful to have had the opportunity to work with her these years.”