About Us

About the Center For Evidence-Based Programming

Award Winning, Evidence-Based Drug Prevention Program

Welcome to Center for Evidence-Based Programming. As a Professor at the University of Arkansas I developed health education materials for schools and recruited schools to participate in field-testing of these products. Other faculty members, staff, and graduate students were also involved. My graduate students and I provided teacher training to project schools and helped schools implement the programs. We collected evaluation data and published the results in scholarly journals. Some of our programs received widespread recognition, including national awards.

Personal Statement

The University licensed the Health Education Projects Office, which I directed, to publish and market these materials to schools and agencies all over the country. Over the next several years we had schools and agencies from 69 of the 75 counties in Arkansas involved in some aspect of our various projects. There was also interest from around the country. We did training workshops in 30 different states, in Puerto Rico, and Washington, D.C. We evaluated programs conducted by medical schools, public school districts, police departments and other community agencies from the east coast to Alaska.

We had a great time, and we know our efforts resulted in many thousands of kids participating in evidence-based programs that made a positive difference In their lives. Few universities, however, are organized in a way that could have easily accommodated the type and the scope of the activities in which we were engaged. One day when I shared with the University's Provost some of the challenges of running our growing business enterprise, within the restrictive confines of the University bureaucracy, he suggested we start our own company. This seemed to be a great idea, so in September of 2006, just a few weeks before our wedding day, Carol and I started the Center for Evidence-Based Programming, and negotiated with the University for the rights to materials that the Health Education Projects Office had been publishing.


Carol's background was in real estate. She had her broker's license and for a number of years ran her own successful real estate company in Hot Springs, Arkansas. She knew that we had materials that could make a positive impact on the lives of young people. She had some doubts, however, that the Center would actually be a viable business, independent from the University; then came our first order. A community agency that had secured a federal grant to implement programming in their area schools wanted us to provide teacher training - and they ordered $32,000 of materials! It is true that this remains one of our larger orders, but it came at just the right time to confirm in our minds that starting the company was, indeed, a great idea.

Today we are a small, dynamic company that is committed to providing evidence-based educational programs that have received national awards and other distinctions for their proven positive influence in the lives of many thousands of young people. When we stop to realize that kids all over the country are in programs that use our materials, and that our materials really do have a positive impact on young people's lives - that gives us a feeling of fulfillment we can't find anywhere else. It's also nice that this is something that the two us can do together - it is our business.

Meet Michael & Carol Young

image of michael and carol young

Carol Young is the co-owner/co-founder and President of the Center for Evidence-Based Programming. She is a long-time successful businesswoman who has owned her own real estate company, and has served as both a member of the Arkansas State Board of Realtors, and President of the Woman's Chamber of Commerce (Hot Springs, AR). She has also served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Miss Arkansas Pageant, Director of the Miss Hot Springs Pageant, and chaperone/traveling companion for Miss Arkansas.


Michael Young is the co-owner/co-founder and CEO of the Center for Evidence-Based  Programming. Dr. Young has more than 40 years of experience in higher education, at  Campbellsville College, Auburn University, University of Arkansas, New Mexico State University, and the University of Texas-Arlington. He has served as a faculty member, academic department head, and associate dean for research. He has published 125 articles in national/international journals and has made more than 272 presentations at national/international conferences. His work has been highly cited by scholars and has also caught the attention of the popular press - having been noted in USA Today, Readers Digest, Redbook, Cosmopolitan, The London Times, and a host of other media outlets.


Dr. Young has received much recognition including the American Association for Health Education's Scholar Award, and the American School Health Association's Research Award. He has given the Research Consortium of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, & Dance Scholar Lecture, and is a Fellow of the American School Health Association, Fellow of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality, Fellow of the American Association for Health Education, and Fellow & Founding Member of the American Academy for Health Behavior.
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