Mrs. Dorothy J. Young was born in Atlanta, Georgia but was reared and educated in Boston, Massachusetts. Dorothy was married to the Late McKinley Young, the 109th Bishop in the history of African Methodism. She is the caring and devoted mother of four beautiful daughters. Karyn Young-Lowe, worked as a Social Worker, lives in Alta Loma, California with her husband Ron, and Bishop and Mrs. Young’s granddaughters, Jennifer Renee and Jessica Christine. Deana Young-McAllister, Assistant Principal, at Amos Godby High School - Tallahassee - Leon County lives with her husband, The Reverend Julius McAllister, Jr., and their sons Julius III, Colin and Dylan in Tallahassee, Florida. Andrea Young Jones is an Executive Staff Analyst with the Mayor’s Office, she and her husband Roddy and sons Peyton and Noah live and work in Houston, Texas. Stephanie Lynn, who lived four years with her parents in South Africa, is Communications Director for the Congressional Black Caucus in Washington, D.C.

Mrs. Young is a graduate of Beth Israel Hospital School of Nursing in Boston.  Mrs. Young worked for twenty-six years as a Registered Professional Nurse in Massachusetts, Illinois and Georgia and has worked actively in organizations and projects that support global health and the eradication of worldwide hunger. Dorothy Young has served the African Methodist Episcopal Church faithfully and creatively through the Women’s Missionary Society. She has served as a Local President, Area Chair, Conference Branch President, Episcopal District President and as an Episcopal District Supervisor. While serving at Big Bethel AME Church in Atlanta, she led the Women’s Missionary Society in the development of the Dorothy J. Young Help Center and “My Sister’s Place,” a transitional living facility for homeless women and their children.

From 1992 to 1996, Mrs. Young lived in Cape Town, Republic of South Africa and served as the Episcopal Supervisor of the Fifteenth Episcopal District Women’s Missionary Society of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. She edited a study guide entitled “Global Economics Seeking a Christian Ethic”  and published and distributed a Lenten/Pentecost Devotional Guide in the voices of the women of Southern Africa entitled “All Things New.”  During her work and witness in Africa she hosted International guests and provided leadership through workshops and mock election forums as South Africa prepared for the 1994 General Election. Mrs. Young traveled with her husband to Luanda, Angola in October 1995 to receive a reported twelve thousand members of the Independent Methodist Church into the Fifteenth Episcopal District African Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1998, the Sojourners Mission Sending Program of the AME Church Women’s Missionary Society was enhanced through the development of a cross-cultural training component developed by Mrs. Young. Her other travels include Central and South America as well as many countries in West, Central and Southern Africa. While Bishop Young served as Ecumenical Officer of the AME Church 1996-2000, Dorothy Young was his Executive Assistant and represented the AME Church at the 8th Assembly World Council of Churches in Zimbabwe. Bishop and Dr. Young attended the 9th Assembly in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 2006.

The Forty-sixth Quadrennial Session of the General Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church appointed Bishop Young as the Presiding Prelate of the Tenth Episcopal District, the state of Texas. While in Texas, she encouraged the involvement of young women in the church and supported students at Paul Quinn College with Scholarships. Bishop and Mrs. Young lead the Tenth Episcopal District in hosting the 15th Quadrennial Convention in Dallas, Texas. Mrs. Young served on the Self-Study Committee which rewrote the Constitution and Bylaws of the International Women’s Fellowship of the AME Church, The Women’s Missionary Society. In 2002 Paul Quinn College, Dallas, Texas conferred The Doctor of Humane Letters on Dorothy Young for her Church and Community Service.

In July of 2004 Bishop and Dr. Young and family were assigned to the Electrifying Eleventh Episcopal District AME Church. (State of Florida and the Bahamas) Dr. Young is a member of the Bold City Chapter of Links, Incorporated. She is a mentor with Take Stock in Children and supervises the Women’s Missionary Society, the Debutante Master Commission and the Ministers Spouses Alliance. She actively supports the recruitment of students and leads the women of the 11th in support for Edward Waters College. In July 2011, the Inaugural Class of the Dorothy Adams Peck Leadership Institute, a vision of Dr. Young, will graduate. The 17th Quadrennial convention of the Connectional Women’s Missionary Society hosted by the 11th Episcopal District will convene in Orlando, Florida, July 21-31, 2011. Her favorite scriptural passage comes from the Book of James, Chapter 1 verse 22, "But be ye doers of the word, and not merely hearers, who deceive themselves."