Asking questions and motivating change, Dr. Treaka Young has built a life centered on advocacy and community.

When Dr. Treaka Young was a little girl growing up in the projects of St. Louis, she was full of questions and felt a pull toward something more..

“I desired more not because I was better than my family, but because I could see something different in my life,” she says.

That desire eventually carried her to Jefferson City to attend Lincoln University, where she joined the college band and played the clarinet for four years, a talent she acquired in childhood.

“On a field trip to Powell Symphony Hall, I saw other children playing the violin and said, ‘Mommy, I want to do that too!’” Treaka explains. “Living in the projects, there weren’t many resources. I remember clearly my music teacher saying, ‘We don’t have a violin, but we have this.’ It was a clarinet. Playing the clarinet paid for all four years of my college as I earned my bachelor’s degree at Lincoln University.”

Treaka became the first in her family to leave home and pursue higher education, earning a bachelor’s degree and, subsequently, two master’s degrees. Years later, she returned to college once more, this time to the University of Missouri – Columbia, where she earned her Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis.

“For a long time, I didn’t know why God kept telling me to get that doctorate,” she says. “Now I know; it gave me the confidence to sit at certain tables and to speak up when I got there.”

Serving more than 20 years in the Missouri state government, Treaka worked in social services, mental health, health and senior services, and as an ombudsman, advocating for nursing home residents and their families. She remembers sitting in rooms where agencies discussed available resources, while the people who needed them were never included in the discussions.

“That bothered me,” she says. “I realized my passion is connecting people in need to resources and helping them navigate complex systems.”

That conviction further shaped her career when she became the director of the Jefferson City Campus for State Fair Community College. She now assists students, many of them first-generation college students, in navigating higher education and accessing essential resources.

But Treaka’s enthusiasm for serving her community extends far beyond her job title. She has served on the Jefferson City Planning and Zoning Commission and now sits on multiple nonprofit boards, including United Way, Habitat for Humanity, and Common Ground Community Building.

She also volunteers with Dreams to Reality’s Dare2Dream program, where she mentors disadvantaged women who are stepping into professional careers for the first time. Dare2Dream is not only a mentorship program, it also helps disadvantaged peers secure career-appropriate clothing.

Most recently, Treaka was elected as Jefferson City’s first female of color to serve on the Jefferson City Council in April of 2024. In 2027, she will be the first person of color to serve as vice president of the Jefferson City Chamber of Commerce. For her, being a member of City Council and the Chamber of Commerce is not a ladder to higher office; it’s a platform for service.

At this point, I don’t want to be a state representative, and I don’t want to be a state senator,” she says. “Jefferson City is my home, and I want to take care of my home.”

Treaka is intentional about how she uses her platform. Her regular “chats at Hy-Vee” invite residents to ask questions and be heard.

“Not everybody can sit on City Council,” she says. “I’ve been given that seat, so I need to carry my constituents’ concerns and questions in the room with me.”

Treaka is firmly rooted in Jefferson City, and she and her husband of 26 years, Bryan Young, have raised their two sons, Joseph and Torrie, here.

“My boys grew up in this city,” she says. “That’s why I care so much about how it feels to live here.”

Looking back, Treaka draws a clear line from the girl who challenged answers like “because I said so” to the woman she is now, who refuses to accept systems that fail her neighbors.

“Asking questions turned out to be my gift,” she says. “It taught me how to speak up for myself first, and then for everyone else who doesn’t yet know how.”

Whether she is helping students untangle financial aid, sitting through a long council meeting, or mentoring women in the Dare2Dream program, she still keeps in mind that nothing changes overnight, and she’s honest about that.

“Everything begins with conversation,” she says. “We may not fix it today, but if we can start talking about it, we can start moving it.”

Treaka is a reminder that change in Jefferson City doesn’t just come from big headlines or one election result; it comes from years of showing up in meeting rooms, classrooms, and quiet one‑on‑one conversations, bringing effort, care, and time to systems that don’t change easily. She lives life by example, showing what can happen when someone is humble and willing to stay at the table long enough to see those small shifts add up.