Campbell-Young completed her
BSc (Biological sciences) at the
University of Johannesburg, South Africa in 1994, followed by a BSc(Honours) in Botany in 1995 and
MSc (Plant Taxonomy) in 1998, for which she revised a genus of legumes endemic to the South African
fynbos region called
Rafnia. In 1995 she worked as a freelance editor during which time she did technical editing and proof-reading of academic publications, PhD dissertations, technical reports and other similar documents. Campbell-Young was appointed Botanical Research Officer / Biodiversity Consultant at the University of Johannesburg from October 1998 to November 2003. During this time she was involved in botanical taxonomy and research projects as well as biodiversity assessments for industrial development projects. She was one of three co-authors of a proposal presented to the
International Association for Plant Taxonomy to conserve the name
Spartium capense (Leguminosae), a name that was in use from at least the early 1800s. They were not successful. From January 2005 to October 2007 Campbell-Young worked as Biodiversity Project Manager for conservation initiatives involving the Drakenstein municipality of
Cape Town, the
South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) and the organisation "Friends of Paarl Mountain". In 2008, Campbell-Young and her colleague, Kevin Balkwill, jointly published the discovery of a new species belonging to the
Faboideae subfamily,
Pearsonia callistoma in the
Nordic Journal of Botany and the discovery is jointly attributed to them in the botanical name. () Campbell-Young emigrated to
Australia in 2007 and worked as Biodiversity Consultant for Ecological Associates (Pty) Ltd in
Adelaide and editor of the
Australian Systematic Botany Newsletter. In July 2010 she was appointed Vegetation Science Research Associate at
Curtin University. She went on to pursue her PhD in Taxonomy at Curtin. Part of her research here included work for the Australian Research Council Linkage project. She stayed in this position until July 2013, at which time she left the university to pursue education in the dramatic arts. From August 2015 to June 2018 Campbell-Young returned to Curtin University and
Monash University, where she had academic teaching duties. At the end of July 2018, Campbell-Young briefly returned to South Africa to attend the Fynbos Forum in
Rawsonville,
Western Cape. She was employed as Project officer from Sep 2018 for Policy and licensing at the Environmental Protection Authority in
Victoria, Australia and from February 2019 for Vicamp Supply Review for the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning. In 2019, Campbell-Young registered with the
Australian Business Register as a sole trader and since March 2020 she has been the Project Leader for the Short-Term Modular Housing Program for Bushfire Recovery Victoria. == Dramatic career ==