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Dobkin Is YSS Board Chair; Ashmore, Morrison Join Ranks

Posted 07/30/20

Photo for Dobkin Is YSS Board Chair; Ashmore, Morrison Join Ranks

 

For Immediate Release
July 29, 2020
Contact: Betsy Bethel-McFarland, bmcfarland@ysswv.com, 304-218-2894

WHEELING, W.Va.  —  The Youth Services System Inc. (YSS) Board of Directors welcomes new chair Robert Dobkin and new members Melisa Ashmore and Cynthia Morrison. All three are Wheeling residents with strong commitments to helping their neighbors in need.

Robert Dobkin is a Trust Officer at WesBanco Trust & Investment Services in Wheeling. He served on the Big Brothers Big Sisters board before it became the YSS Youth Mentoring Network in 2016, and soon after he accepted a position on the YSS board. He became vice chair in 2019 and assumed chairmanship on July 1, following Emily Fisher’s three-year term.

Dobkin is a graduate of John Marshall High School, received a psychology degree from West Virginia Northern Community College, earned a Bachelor of Organizational Leadership Degree from Wheeling Jesuit University, and graduated with a Juris Doctor degree from Duquesne University School of Law. He worked in the automotive industry, in the oil and gas field, and as an attorney  in a Pittsburgh-based national firm before joining WesBanco.

Dobkin is a member of the West Virginia State Bar, the Pennsylvania Bar Association and the Grand Vue Park Foundation Board. He serves as treasurer of the WVNCC Foundation Board of Directors and Temple Shalom Board of Trustees. He lives in Wheeling with his wife Amy and their 10-year-old son, Ben.

Dobkin said he looks forward to helping secure the future of YSS so it can continue its mission “to create better futures for children, families and our community.”

“We have a lot of bricks and mortar and a lot of spokes in this big wheel of YSS, but we are our mission. Whatever spoke we’re talking about, we are the mission, and that’s being an agency that impacts people who live on the margins and that sometimes, oftentimes, are forgotten about,” Dobkin said.

Melissa Ashmore is a Realtor with family-owned Kennen & Kennen Realtors in Wheeling. She is a graduate of Wheeling Park High School and received a bachelor’s degree from Fairmont State University. She taught school in Charlotte, N.C., where she met her husband, Paul. The couple moved to Wheeling in 2004 and have two children, Ben, 15, and Samantha, 12.

Ashmore volunteers with the Vineyard Church Blessing Boutique and the YSS Sophie Moses Free Store, helping connect children and families in need with items donated by community members.

Cynthia Morrison is the executive director of River Valley Health Foundation. She is a graduate of Mount de Chantal Visitation Academy and received a bachelor’s degree in English at College of Wooster. She worked as an admissions counselor at Wheeling Jesuit University before attending law school at Ohio Northern University, from where she earned a Juris Doctor degree. She clerked for a federal judge for two years and was a litigator in Pittsburgh, Toledo and Philadelphia before returning to Wheeling in 2016 to help care for her mother.

Morrison is the vice president of the YWCA Wheeling Board of Directors and volunteers with the Wheeling Symphony Auxiliary.

Also serving on the YSS board are E. Marc Abraham, Darryl E. Clausell, Meredith Dailer, Rick Davis, Ralph Edwards, Emily Fisher, Emily Freeman-Waters, Robert J. Gaudio, vice chair Alex Nagem, finance chair Justin Pastorius, Matt Porter, Dion Scripture and secretary Zak Zatezalo.

About Youth Services System, Inc.
Youth Services System, Inc. is committed to responding to the complex needs of youth at serious risk. For 45 years, Youth Services System, Inc. has reached thousands of youth and their families with our shelter, residential, community-based and professional services. Together with youth and their families, we work to improve their physical and emotional well-being, to address the debilitating effects of abuse, addiction and trauma, and to build the skills and connections they need to be successful. Accredited by CARF International and supported by our volunteer Board of Directors, dedicated staff and faithful community, Youth Services System, Inc. makes a measurable impact in the lives of youth. For more information, visit www.youthservicessystem.org.

 

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