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Conklin to direct new Red Cross chapter
By WILLIAM K. ALCORN
WARREN
The first director of the newly formed American Red Cross of the Mahoning Valley Chapter is Liberty Township resident Karen Conklin.
The Mahoning County and Trumbull County Chapters merged Thursday to create the Mahoning Valley Chapter.
Conklin, who officially starts her new position Aug. 1, was most recently executive director of the Humane Society of Greater Akron in Twinsburg, a job she says she took to honor the memory of her late daughter, Alexis, who she said loved animals.
“I’m thrilled to be coming back to work in the Valley,” she said in a press release issued by the Red Cross.
Conklin, who was chosen after a nationwide search, has other ties to the Mahoning Valley besides living in Liberty. She has also had leadership positions with the former Girl Scouts Lake to River Council, with headquarters in Niles, and the Butler Institute of American Art, and as business consultant.
Red Cross representatives said Conklin was picked for the job because of her “outstanding record of successful organizational management and fundraising, and her proven ability to bring people together.”
The Trumbull County Chapter had four to five paid staff and 350 volunteers, including its blood services division, and Mahoning County Chapter had five employees and about 200 volunteers in its disaster- services division.
“I’ve had the good fortune of spending half my career in Mahoning County and the other half in Trumbull County,” Conklin said.
“So I know the area, the people and the needs. And I’m very excited because there is great strength in the volunteer forces in our Valley. I can’t wait to re-engage with them,” said Conklin, who is a working high school wrestling referee.
The combined boards formed a subcommittee that is working on forming a new board of directors, said Lou Joseph, chairman of the former Mahoning County Chapter board.
Since each board had about 30 members, Joseph said the hope is to create a board for the new Mahoning Valley Chapter from that group that will, as equally as possible, represent both counties.
The Mahoning County Chapter’s executive director, W. Russell Preston, retired, and the Trumbull County Chapter’s executive director, Christinia Gargas, is taking another position with the Red Cross.