Chris Young, workforce development director for the Texas Department of Transportation, began a two-year term as vice chair of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials’ Transportation Curriculum Coordination Council or TC3 on Oct. 23; a term that will officially wrap up at the end of the 2021 TC3 Annual Meeting.

TC3, launched in summer 2000, functions as a partnership among state departments of transportation, government entities, and AASHTO, along with other industry associations, institutions, and academia. Its purpose is to improve training opportunities for transportation technical workers, while applying innovative measures to reduce duplication of efforts and costs to state and local transportation agencies.

Young has been with TxDOT for nearly four years and leads a team of 30 training, program administration, and human resource professionals in the full scope of organizational training, education assistance, and professional development for the agency’s 12,000-plus workforce scattered across Texas. He directs the implementation, performance, and evaluation of contracted training provided statewide via more than 40 private and public vendor partnerships valued at over $11 million annually.

A U.S. Army veteran, Young previously served as a foreign service officer for nearly seven years with the U.S. State Department before entering the private sector in 2008 to work for consulting firm DeepMile Networks; all prior to joining TxDOT in January 2015.