Alison Young joined Knight Ridder's Washington-based investigative team in 2003 from the Detroit Free Press, where she was consumer affairs reporter, enterprise editor and deputy metro editor.

In 2004, she and colleague Chris Adams won a National Headliner Award for their series on inappropriate off-label prescription drug use, as well as award from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers. Previously, she won the Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism for an investigation of a deadly national outbreak linked to Sara Lee deli meats and the Roy W. Howard Award for Public Service for coverage of abuse and neglect in nursing homes.

Prior to joining the Free Press in 1993, Young was a children's issues reporter at The Arizona Republic and covered environment issues for the Dallas Times Herald. She is a graduate of the University of Kansas.