Leader

Dr. Youngblood has served in various leadership positions over the years. Leadership comes natural to him, but he doesn't feel the need to always be the leader—some situations are better served by being a good follower and always a good listener. Since good leadership always felt natural and less challenging than the technical, Dr. Youngblood has focused his career on more technical aspects as he feels there will always be time to move into leadership/management. Although, he recognizes that leadership is a tough job itself that takes time to master. 

Dr. Youngblood has adopted the philosophy of Servant Leadership, and as he is called to serve in leadership positions, he treats it as that—serving. He believes that the most important part of an organization is its people, in fact an organization/company/university/etc is nothing but its people. By enriching the lives of the people in that collective and enabling them to be the best versions of themselves, they in-turn will make that organization the best version of itself.

I believe in the philosophy of Servant Leadership in that a leader puts their people first and serves them as opposed to being leader-first. I believe in listening to and developing the people I serve to be the best version of themselves. I take an interest in their career goals and encourage and support them while providing them challenging assignments and goals to give them opportunity to grow and gain a sense of satisfaction from accomplishment. My job as a leader is to have patience, build trust, and provide guidance. I believe in recognition of good work, constructive and timely feedback, and giving credit when credit is due, but also accountability for mistakes. I feel that it is a leaders responsibility to set the example, especially of how to handle stress and disappointment. I believe that even the appearance of impropriety is impropriety.  I believe that part of pushing to be your best includes risk of failure, but through failure we learn and can utilize that to move forward better (failing forward). I do not believe that anyone is irredeemable.

I believe two-way communication is central to good leadership. Leaders provide a line of sight to the organizations' mission and objectives. They should be clear about their rationale in decisions, perspective, and point of view. They must also be consistent in their messages, behaviors, and expectations. But they often do more listening than talking—valuing opinions and suggestions and being committed to helping everyone be their best. Leaders follow through on their commitments.

I believe in using influence as a leader to champion the worthy causes of those I serve, provide them opportunity, and remove obstacles as well as shield from politics and unnecessary distraction that serves more to disrupt than enable. A leaders job is to protect their interests and provide them resources, tools, and training to do their jobs and be their best. Leaders do this with confidence and humility, seriousness and levity, and strength and vulnerability.

I believe that every organization as a collective can set and enforce their values, define their culture, and be the best version of itself by every member being the best version of themself. Leaders are enablers, guides, and facilitators supporting those that turn these ideals into reality. 

I believe in self-reflection and assessment, being evidence driven through tested hypotheses, and torturing ideas through the scrutiny of diverse lenses. Only organizations with sufficient diversity in their people are capable of such activities that turn ideas into the best ideas. Leaders build diverse teams and establish cultures of positive scrutiny. Leaders create environments where everyone feels safe to take the journey of discovering the best version of themself while executing on strategy and meeting goals.

• Assistant Area Manager for Human-Machine Collaboration Research at PARC

  • Manage the daily engineering and research operations for a growing group of 5-7 local researchers/engineers and multiple external partners

  • Managing a budget of ~$12 million USD

• Chief Executive Officer for a start-up company, Geometric Analytics

  • Managed a team of 3, internationally embedded in France

  • Managing a lean budget of ~$40 thousand USD

• Computer Science Professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte

  • Managed my own research group of 6-18 doctorate, masters, and undergraduate research students and multiple external partners

  • Served on University and College Computing Infrastructure Committees

  • Managed a budget of ~$2 million USD

• Chief Scientist of the MAVHome Project at the University of Texas at Arlington

  • Managed the project with a rotating group of 4-6 faculty and 8-18 student researchers

  • Managed a budget of ~$4 million USD

• Software lead for the Enterprise Data Publisher (EDP)  at American Airlines

  • Managed the project with a 5 person development team

• Lead Engineer for the Channel Element Services portion of the Common Base Transceiver Station Platform (CBTSP) at Motorola 

  • Managed the project with a 3 person development team

• Student Leader at the University of Texas at Arlington

  • Served as Vice-Chair and Chair of the ACM/IEEE-CS Chapter

  • Served as the Dallas-Fort Worth Professional ACM SIGGRAPH Chapter Chair

  • Served on the Joint Council of Engineering Organizations (JCEO, student governance organization) as the CSE representative

  • Served as the Student Body President for the College of Engineering and as part on multiple University committees as a student leadership representative

• Non-commissioned officer in the US Navy Submarine Force

  • Led the Division Training Group teaching and reinforcing fundamentals and advanced skills to the ship in Nuclear Operations and Repair. Team of 6 serving 1500+ personnel

  • Senior Radiological Controls Shift Supervisor in charge of the radiological controls (containment, exposure monitoring, health physics, waste management and shipping, etc.) of all nuclear repair operations supporting Submarine Squadrons 6 & 8 in Norfolk, VA. Managed 2–7 teams of 5–7 people to support work up to shipyard-level and sometimes beyond. 

  • Engine Room Supervisor in charge of nuclear propulsion operations at sea managing a team (4 watch stations and up to a dozen people) to support U.S. naval operations. 

  • Leading Engineering Laboratory Technician in charge of a 6 person division that was responsible for all primary and secondary nuclear power plant chemistry, radiological surveys and controls, and personnel dosimetry. 

  • Ranked the #1 non-commissioned officer in my division the last 2 years of my service 

  • Responsible for U.S. Government assets worth over ~$100 billion USD and the safety of over 200,000 people 

• Shift Manager for the Wen-Corpus Company

  • Quick serve restaurant manager managing a shift of up to 7-12+ employees providing service to hundreds of customers  daily

  • Ranked National DECA Top 10 in Quick Service Restaurant Management

  • Managed a store with over $2 million USD in sales/year and ~$700 thousand USD in assets