Marian Young ’80 selected for a 2016 Philadelphia SmartCEO Brava Award

Marian Young ’80, a Delaware Valley University agronomy and environmental science alumna, was awarded a 2016 Brava Award by Philadelphia SmartCEO.  The Brava Awards celebrate the distinguished achievements of 40 of Greater Philadelphia’s top women business leaders. Recipients of this year’s awards were honored July 12 at the Crystal Tea Room in Philadelphia.

Young is president of BrightFields, Inc., a 45-person environmental consulting and remediation services firm headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, with offices in both Philadelphia and Baltimore. The company is certified nationally by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council.

BrightFields specializes in: environmental site assessments, tank management services, remedial design/remedial action, brownfield redevelopment, asbestos and lead, permitting and compliance services, environmental demolition, sustainability and stream and wetland restoration.

The Brava Awards program selects winners in three categories: CEOs, Executive Directors of Nonprofits, and C-suite executives. An independent committee of local business leaders chooses the winners based on company growth, community impact and mentoring.

Young built a company of technically strong, responsible, and proactive employees who solve environmental challenges for clients and communities. 

“We love to innovate at BrightFields,” said Young. “We work with research scientists to develop and test new remediation strategies, like microbes that degrade polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).  We restore degraded streams and wetlands.  We actively train and develop future generations of scientists, engineers, technicians and equipment operators.  Our team is dedicated, hard-working and passionate about cleaning up former industrial properties so they can be used again – to build new roads, buildings, parks or wildlife habitats.  When these blighted areas are redeveloped, the surrounding communities are uplifted and revitalized.”

Young serves as vice president of the Delawareans for Environmental and Economic Development and co-chairs DNREC’s Ecological Restoration and Green Remediation Committee.

She is also involved with New Castle County Resource Protection Area Technical Advisory Council and the Society of Women Environmental Professionals and the Committee of 100.