Europe Chief of Instructional Leadership Development

Mr. Young is no stranger to DoDEA Europe nor the CIL. Prior to coming to Europe, he served multiple roles in the Pacific East District, to include Staff Development Coach, Acting Principal and Special Education Assistant Principal, where he used his prior experience with Common Core to support College and Career Literacy and Mathematics implementation. Jorma arrived to DoDEA Europe in October 2017 as the CIL’s first Professional Practice and Improvement Specialist (PPIS) and became Acting CIL Chief in May 2018. He worked quickly to build relationships with district and school leaders and to embed a culture of analyze and adjust to support authentic action planning at the school, district, and region levels, leading numerous learning networks focused on improving student achievement.

Prior to joining DoDEA, Mr. Young served in a variety of roles within the Hillsborough County, Florida School District, beginning his career in 1999 as a drop-out prevention teacher and starting the district’s first AVID program in 2003. In 2007, Mr. Young was named Supervisor of Academic Programs for Hillsborough County where he coached leaders in educational reform and provided professional learning for over 5000 administrators, counselors, and teachers on eliminating the achievement gap and college and career readiness. 

In an effort to eliminate achievement and opportunity gaps for students, Jorma fostered partnerships with community organizations, such as Boys and Girls Club and 100 Black Men of Tampa Bay, and with institutions of higher learning, such as the University of South Florida and the University of Tampa to provide summer enrichment programs for students and Advanced Placement training for teachers. He forged relationships with not-for-profit educational organizations, to include AVID and the College Board, to provide high quality professional learning for leaders and teachers. As a district administrator, Mr. Young expanded the AVID program to all 73 secondary schools and 20 elementary schools within 2 years.   

Mr. Young spent five years with the College Board, focused on the State of Florida’s Partnerships for Minority and Under-Represented Students. He established strategic partnerships with Superintendents to increase student performance and college and career readiness. He worked collaboratively with these leaders to create systemic academic and support structures to eliminate the achievement and opportunity gaps. As Director, he coached, consulted and mentored Superintendents, District Staff and Principals in making data informed decisions, curriculum and instructional changes to align with College and Career Ready Standards, and ensuring equity and access for all students. He helped districts and schools to establish an Advanced Placement pipeline that increased enrollment by 50-100% and eliminated the achievement and opportunity gap at the same time.
He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Social Science and a Master’s degree in Educational Leadership from the University of South Florida (USF). Mr. Young is passionate about data analysis and use of data to improve student achievement.  This passion led him to earn a second Master’s degree in Management Information Systems from Nova Southeastern University.  

Jorma’s family lives in the Kaiserslautern Military Community. He and wife, Wendy, are proud parents of two teenaged daughters. Their eldest, Abigail, recently graduated from Ramstein High School, and attends college in the United States. Their youngest daughter, Madalyn, is a freshmen at Ramstein High School.