Amber Young
Director of Marketing and Product Management | Northwoods
“At Northwoods, we succeed when we give time back to the people doing the work—and that time turns into better outcomes for families.”
Amber Young has spent more than 15 years building brands that mean something. Her background spans marketing leadership, brand strategy, and product management across technology, agency, franchise, and service-based industries.
She knows how to build high-performing teams, launch products that land, and tell stories that connect.
Amber joined Northwoods because it sits at a rare intersection: innovation with purpose. The mission was real. The people were genuine. She couldn’t pass up the chance to apply her skills to some of the hardest, most important work in our communities.
The Path to Northwoods
As director of Marketing and Product Management, Amber connects customer needs, market opportunity, and product innovation. Then she figures out how to tell that story so it reaches the right people.
She’s focused on ensuring Northwoods grows in a way that creates real value for the agencies and workers it serves. Her sister-in-law is a social worker; the mission isn’t abstract.
Every decision comes back to the same question. Does this help workers spend more time with people and less time on process?
For Amber, success looks special. Workers stay longer and get home earlier. They make better decisions for the families who need them most. Her vision for Traverse is that it becomes the tool no caseworker can imagine going without.
Athletics shaped her as much as any job. Amber played collegiate softball, coached at the college level, and still coaches youth sports today. The dynamics of coaching—trust, accountability, and pushing people toward what they’re capable of—translate into how she leads teams and builds culture.
She’s competitive by nature, and it shows in how she approaches the work.
The Problems Worth Solving
Amber zeroes in on the pressure points that make it hardest for agencies to serve families:
- Workforce burnout, disconnected systems, and the growing administrative burden on frontline workers
- The need for technology and services that surface the right information at the right time, helping agencies make faster, better decisions
- Agencies operating in reactive mode, without the connected visibility to get ahead of caseloads, decisions, and compliance pressures
The Northwoods Difference: Built Alongside People Who Know the Work
For Amber, what sets Northwoods apart is straightforward: solutions built alongside people who have actually done the work. Many team members, customers, and subject matter experts come directly from health and human services.
That combination of real-world empathy, technology expertise, and authentic partnership is hard to replicate.
The opportunity she sees is equally clear. Duplicate work is a solvable problem. Frontline workers need intelligent tools that surface the right information at the right moment.
The data already exists. The opportunity is making it actionable.
Curiosity in Practice
Amber leads with curiosity. The best leaders aren’t the ones with all the answers but those willing to ask better questions.
Curiosity drives growth, innovation, and the kind of humility that keeps a team learning. It’s also what keeps a company honest about whether the work it does is truly working.
When people feel seen, challenged, and supported, they do their best work. Amber wants the people she leads to feel trusted and empowered to bring their full selves to the table. She wants teams who aren’t afraid to challenge the status quo—and who know that mistakes are just another way of learning.
She also wants them to leave work at work and to show up at home where they’re needed, too. The best version of a teammate is a whole person.
In Amber's Words
Beyond the Work
Amber runs a small photography business, coaches youth sports, and gives back regularly. She serves her community through a mentorship initiative in Licking County, the YMCA, and her church.
In a previous career chapter that tends to catch people off guard, she worked for a crime scene cleaning company. She describes the experience as “people first, business second” in its truest form. It still shapes how she thinks about showing up for people at their hardest moments.
She sees a thread from that work to what Northwoods does today.