Sabrina Young

Sabrina Young

Driehaus College of BusinessEconomicsClinical ProfessorFacultyFull Time
Contact
sabrina.young@depaul.edu(312) 362-8000
Office
1 E. Jackson Blvd., DePaul Center 6223, Chicago, IL 60604

BIO

Academic Degrees

PhD, Public Health Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago, 2020 
MA, Philosophy, University of Bristol, 2010 
BA, Philosophy & Government, California State University Sacramento, 2009

Biography

Sabr​ina K. Young is a health policy researcher and lecturer whose work focuses on the economics of nutrition, food security, and public assistance programs. Young teaches courses in business analytics and economics. 

Before joining DePaul, Young was a research economist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service, where she led projects on food consumption trends, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and the affordability of healthy diets. 

Her research has been published in leading journals including Diabetes Care, Journal of Nutrition, Preventive Medicine Reports, and the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. She has also authored widely cited USDA reports and written for policy outlets such as Amber Waves. Young’s research examines how income cycles, program design, and market forces shape diet quality and health outcomes, with special attention to vulnerable populations. 

She has received competitive research funding from the National Institutes of Health and the USDA’s National Institute for Food and Agriculture. Her work has been recognized with the Rowland “Bing” Chang Award for Excellence in Research from Northwestern University’s Institute for Public Health and Medicine and multiple USDA Extra Effort Awards. 
In addition to her research, Young has been an active mentor, including with the American Economic Association’s Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession and through iMentor, a Chicago-based program supporting first-generation college students. 
Young earned her PhD in health policy and administration from the University of Illinois at Chicago, where her dissertation examined the role of SNAP in food insecurity and food acquisition. She also holds degrees in philosophy and government from California State University–Sacramento and the University of Bristol.