Executive Director

Cathleen Young, Executive Director, The HUMANITAS Prize

Cathleen Young came to HUMANITAS by way of her 20-year career as a Hollywood writer. She has written 13 two-hour network movies for ABC, NBC, CBS and Lifetime -- 6 produced. She was on-staff at two network series. Young also won the HUMANITAS Prize and a Christopher Award in 1995 for her ABC Hallmark Hall of Fame Presentation "A Place for Annie," which was nominated for an Emmy® as well as the 1996 WGA Award. Young's other credits include the CBS primetime series Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, CBS Movies of the Week Everything to Gain, Her Own Rules and Lifetime's Navigating the Heart. She has had a number of published articles in Working Mother Magazine, The Chicago Tribune, The Chicago Sun Times and a book published by St. Martin’s Press entitled Quiet Renegade: Isabella Rossellini.

Young has more than fifteen years of experience within the television and journalism industry. She served as guest editor for Mademoiselle Magazine and went on to do long-term story breakdowns for CBS' The Young and The Restless, where Bill Bell was an early mentor. She then went on to become a staff writer for the primetime hit series MacGyver. Her sister is actress Sean Young and her father, Don Young Jr., was an Emmy® Award winning news producer. She has been a Trustee of HUMANITAS since 1996.