2021 UWAA Rising Alumni Awardee: Tiffany Young

By Jeff Victor 

The University of Wyoming’s MBA program gave Tiffany Young the skills she uses to help launch satellites into orbit, teaching her to work across disciplines to achieve big picture goals.

Young earned the UW Alumni Association’s Rising Alumni Award for 2021, alongside Anne Mason. The award recognizes recent graduates who have distinguished themselves in their professional careers.

“I was really surprised, since I haven’t been out of school that long,” Young said of winning the award. “I’m just really humbled and honored to be recognized.”

Young did not start her collegiate career looking to launch satellites. When she came to UW, the Laramie native began performing with the Centennial Singers and taking roles in dance performances. She also taught classes at Laramie Dance Center and karate at Laramie Kempo Karate Club.

Eventually, she double-majored in finance and dance, looking to eventually work in arts administration.

“Originally I wanted my master’s in arts administration, but all the schools wanted 3-5 years of work experience before going into that program,” she said. “So, I figured I would get the experience first.”

But while working for the UW Alumni Association, Young started talking to people in the MBA program on campus. Discovering that the program did not require years of experience, Young applied, was accepted, and in two years had an MBA in energy management.

Young accepted a job right out of graduate school with United Launch Alliance (ULA)—a spacecraft launch service provider.

“We’re based here in Centennial, Colo.,” she says. “But we launch satellites and other payloads into space from our two launch sites at Cape Canaveral in Florida and the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.”

The job would introduce Young to a completely new discipline.

“My first job was a finance rotation program where I got to do four six-month rotations in all these different finance groups,” she says. “One of those rotations was in Florida, which was really cool because I got to be at the launch site and see launches. I got to see the hardware and that’s what sparked my interest to get more involved on the technical side. I saw what the engineers were doing and what they got to experience.”

Young went back to school. Funded by her employer, Young enrolled at Colorado State University (CSU) and two-and-a-half years later, she had earned another master’s degree—this time in systems engineering.

She worked full-time at ULA throughout her time at CSU, and still works there, but now as a systems engineer.

“You can think of a systems engineer as a technical project manager,” Young says. “I work with all the different engineering disciplines like mechanical, electrical, software and thermal—looking at all requirements between our launch vehicle and the space vehicle’s interfaces and making sure all the different parts and pieces come together for launch day.”

Throughout it all, Young credits UW with letting her explore new fields and fostering her ability to work across disciplines.

“In my work today, I try to take that same perspective,” she says. “If I see an opportunity and it’s something that I think would help me grow in my career, I try to go after that. The things I got to experience when I was going to school really helped me on my journey to where I am today. Without those experiences, I wouldn’t have been able to accomplish the things I have.”