Meet The EAS Team

Marianne Young is a wife, mother of three, and special education advocate. Mrs. Young found her calling as an advocate for students with disabilities through her youngest child’s learning difficulties, and the challenges she faced while navigating the educational system on his behalf.

Marianne has been advocating for many years and officially opened Exceptional Advocacy Services in 2017. Marianne believes that every child has the capacity to learn and has gifts that can be developed. Marianne has dedicated her professional life to ensuring that all children have access to a quality education. She works full time as a special education advocate in more than 23 districts across Georgia and Alabama, including Fort Benning. Mrs. Young also provides Individualized Education Program  (IEP) and disability training for several businesses and non-profits. 

Marianne has been recognized for her work by community leaders and education advocates throughout Columbus. In 2017, Marianne was honored by the NAACP with the "Community Hero Award." She was appointed to the Alternative Education- Community Advisory Committee for the Muscogee County School Board as subject matter expert (SME) in Special Education. Later that year, she was appointed to the district's Continuous Improvement Planning Committee. In 2018, she was chosen as a member of GeorgiaCAN's inaugural Advocacy Council, elected to the Executive Board of the Autism Hope Center, and appointed as a Network Leader for the Autism Society of Alabama. Marianne completed the training and competency exam for Registered Behavior Technicians (RBT) in 2019 and has been featured multiple times on the television show "Straight Forward with Gloria Strode" and on WLTZ's "Community Spotlight" with Nicole Jones. In 2020, Marianne was elected to the Board of Directors for Access 2 Independence, appeared in the Census 2020 promotional videos and sat on a national panel about obtaining a Free and Appropriate Public Education during a pandemic, representing  both Georgia and Alabama. She was appointed by City Council to the Region Six Advisory Council for the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, and is the author of "Raising Exceptional Children: A Guide to Understanding Learning Differences and Empowering Your Child." Raising Exceptional Children became the number one new release in disability parenting on Amazon, 19 days prior to its on-sale date. 

Mrs. Young is a member of Council Of Parent Attorneys and Advocates (COPAA).

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Madison Nigh is a proud military spouse, fur mom, and special education advocate. Madison has obtained a bachelor’s in Special Education: Moderate - Intensive Needs from Ohio University and master’s in Educational Leadership from American College of Education. She has nine years of experience, including serving as an intervention specialist in Ohio for five years. She also has her Ohio teaching and administrative licenses. Through her experiences, she has developed a passion for student success and parent involvement within the school system.

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Mrs. Nigh has experience in teaching in multiple areas, from functional skills in a high school self-contained classroom setting to academic and behavior intervention in an elementary pull-out setting. Madison has written dozens of IEPs, that included present levels of performance, objectives, and goals, while also working with support staff such as speech and language pathologists, occupational therapists, and physical therapists. She has performed evaluations to determine special education eligibility and collected data for IEP goals and interventions. She served on the Positive Behavior and Intervention Support (PBIS) Team within an elementary school where she developed and implemented various behavior data collection systems and interventions for students. Finally, she has most recently been serving the Fort Benning community as a private tutor and advocate within DODEA schools.

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On her own time, Madison enjoys spending a lot of time outside with her dogs, Thor and Ivy. She hunts deer, turkey, and wild boar with her husband on the weekends and enjoys cooking wild game. She loves board games, traveling, and taking care of her collection of house plants.  

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Madison has always known that she wanted to serve exceptional students in amazing ways. Working with students with disabilities started while she was in middle school, and Madison’s passion has grown over many years into wanting to help their families as well. She hopes that she can help make your family’s education experience exceptional!