He may have been your Physical Education instructor, your partner while running Wadi Bih, or the person whose work you’ve admired on campus-wide initiatives like the MENA Regional Special Olympics. You may have no interest in Athletics, but still stopped in to chat with Wayne Young when you saw the jar of Hershey’s kisses sitting on the corner of his desk. For now, many on campus know Wayne Young as Coach Wayne, but starting on April 8 he will assume a new role: Interim Director of Health and Wellness.

Anyone who has had the opportunity to speak with Wayne can see his passion for students, sports and health and has probably heard a story about his three daughters. What many students may not know is the varied experience he brings to this community. Young studied Psychology at West Point, the foremost U.S. American military academy, served as a Lieutenant and Captain in the U.S. Army, held various roles in Operations, Logistics and Transport and was Deputy Project Manager for KBR during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

While Young will be the first non-medical doctor to serve as the Interim Director of Health and Wellness, but his experience in health and health-related issues is extensive and varied. It all began with his involvement with breast cancer awareness and support, the motivation for which arises from a personal perspective.

“[I have a] long family history of breast cancer with my mother and sister,” he said. “I have a genetic mutation, [and] two of my daughters do [too], which is something that’s been in my family since my family started getting checked.”

That interest has led to over 25 years of involvement as a volunteer with Breast Cancer Awareness and breast health in his local communities in the United States and elsewhere. He’s been involved with Breast Cancer Awareness Month as a planner and a speaker and has spoken at local businesses about his family’s experiences and his unique experience as a man.

This isn’t Young’s first time acting as the Executive Director in a health center. The first was when he served as the executive director of a nursing clinic in Battle Creek, Michigan for nine months. The clinic was a free health center where people without health insurance could come for medical services provided by volunteer doctors and nurses.

That experience eventually led him to be a candidate for Interim Director of the Battle Creek Health Care System’s Cancer Care Center.

“While I was in that position, I had some contacts at the hospital … the director of the Cancer Care Center became available, and I told them I was interested in that position. They knew me from the nursing clinic and also from being a volunteer in the community for breast cancer and breast health stuff from the mid 90’s,” he said.

While he took the role as a trial position, after two months the center’s leadership decided to take Interim off the title. From 2008 to 2010, he served as the Executive Director of the Cancer Care Center of Battle Creek Health System in Battle Creek, Michigan. During that time, he was able to continue his work surrounding breast cancer.

“At the Cancer Care Center … I was a board member for the Michigan Cancer Consortium, so I did stuff statewide and I also did stuff nationally with Susan G. Komen for the Cure.”

He loved the job, enough to consider that it could be his last. However, he was enticed by a job offer from a startup university in the Middle East. Wayne says that he came to NYUAD because it offered a new adventure.

Excitement about a new position and the learning opportunities it poses have, in fact, determined his entire professional career. He sums up his career as chasing learning opportunities that allow him to use his skills to better organizations.

“I tend to take jobs that interest me regardless of the industry or the business … I am not a doctor or a lawyer or an engineer. What I do is I manage people and processes. For me, the industry or the place I do that is almost irrelevant.”

In fact, the Associate Director of Athletics, Intramurals and Recreation role was Young’s first foray into athletics. The position was offered to him because a friend working at NYUAD knew he’d been involved in athletic events such as Race for the Cure in the U.S. The same friend recognized that he had a business background from his management of the hospital’s budget.

Recognition for his skills and interests led to Young becoming a candidate for Interim Director of Health and Wellness. When the position opened up in December 2017, Young was considered as a candidate because other members of the administration knew about his background in healthcare. He first had a discussion with Kyle Farley, Dean of Students, about the nuances of running Health and Wellness. After that, he met with a staff member from Human Resources to clarify his qualifications in health care and beyond.

Young views his lack of direct medical expertise as a strength rather than a weakness in the position. In the past, the Executive Director or the Interim Director has always been a medical doctor, so in addition to all of the administrative responsibilities they saw patients. He will take care of Department of Health Regulations, Environmental Health and Safety Regulations, licensing, continuing medical education, and the other standards that must be met.

“My job is to allow the nurses and doctors and therapists and psychologists to do what they do best,” he said. “I can just go down and handle the administrative side of things, and let the professionals work to their skill level in the medical field and I can do all of the administrative stuff. I can take that burden off of them.”

The motivation that piqued Young’s interest in the Athletics position is the same as that which piqued his interest in Health and Wellness.

“For me, it’s helping students stay healthy," said Young of that motivation.

"The primary focus has been through sport and athletics and being physically healthy. I know how that integrates with mental health, because of my background and being a single father to three daughters through their teenage years. I’ve been on the athletics side of things and the physical health side of things … and now I get to kind of change over to the mental health and the other physical side of things.”

Young acknowledges that he has a huge learning curve approaching in the near future, but looks forward to the challenge. Though he is excited about being able to benefit the student body in a new way, one of his principal concerns about the transition is losing out on close interaction with students. He has some plans to overcome the isolation of having an office embedded in the labyrinthine structure of the Health and Wellness office, and wants students, staff and faculty to feel comfortable approaching him. He has always valued community interaction and integration; the candy dish on his desk is not a new addition, but a practice that dates back to his time at the Cancer Care Center.

“People would come out of radiation therapy, and they’d stop by my office and grab a piece of candy and [I would] find out how their day was going. I could find out how my employees were taking care of them … that’s what I will still do because that’s the feedback I need to make sure that things are going as smoothly as possible.”

Young also plans to continue teaching Physical Education classes and be involved in First Year Dialogue. He will also be meeting regularly with students from the Health Advisory Board, and is always open to student feedback. He keeps note of student concerns that have already been voiced to him alongside his to-learn list of what he hopes to understand soon in his new position, which includes the the UAE’s medical and health regulations.

The Associate Director of Athletics, Intramurals and Recreation position, which Wayne has held for the past seven years, will remain open for about six months. At that point, a decision will be made concerning the correct direction for the Health and Wellness Center. This could involve the Interim Director position becoming permanent.

Overall plans for the department involve adding a female doctor to the staff. Young aims to learn about the perception of the Health and Wellness Center among the student body and adjust the Center if needed, which could mean making the atmosphere more comfortable and approachable. Young’s door will remain open and the candy dish will remain on his desk, so feel free to stop by.