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MYCAP turns over reins to its new chief executive
YOUNGSTOWN
Robin Renee Walton is the new chief executive officer of Mahoning-Youngstown Community Action Partnership.
Walton, former planning and compliance coordinator for the Franklin County poverty prevention agency, IMPACT, was among the final three candidates after a national search that attracted 25 applicants for the position.
The MYCAP board hired her, and her first day on the job was Monday.
Walton, whose salary is $85,000 a year, replaces Marilyn McDaniel, who has been CEO while the search for a permanent CEO and transition from the interim management team brought here in November 2010 were completed.
MYCAP is the federally designated, countywide poverty-prevention agency. The programs operated include Head Start, Center for Family Economic Success, home weatherization, emergency energy assistance, and nutrition, senior transportation and rural services.
“Renee was the board’s first choice, and its members were delighted she accepted,” McDaniel said.
Walton is relocating from Columbus to Mahoning County with her husband, Steve, and their dogs and cats. The couple has four adult children and five grandchildren.
Walton says she is excited about becoming the agency’s leader, despite the fact it may be facing bankruptcy.
MYCAP is trying to persuade the U.S. Department of Agriculture to reduce or waive the Ohio Department of Education’s demand for a $879,547 refund for the operation of two USDA-funded child- and adult-feeding programs associated with Head Start.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack is the court of last resort for MYCAP, McDaniel said.
The $879,547 was not misspent, and a yearlong investigation by the Ohio Department of Education cleared the local agency of any wrongdoing.
At this point, said McDaniel, who is staying on for a few days as a special assistant to help with the transition, there has been no word from the Agriculture Department.
“I truly do see this as an opportunity, Walton said. “This is an excellent time to come in as the new executive with the foundation that was laid by the interim management team, a reorganized and energized board of directors, and a very receptive community that has responded to the call for action by the secretary of agriculture.
“We also are being approached with new competitive-funding partnerships for the first time in nearly two years,” she added.
Before working for IMPACT Community Action from 2010 to 2012, Walton was, among other positions, a social worker and youth specialist for the Ohio Department of Youth Services; executive director of IFACE/Hocking County Family Activity Center and the Sankofa Youth Academy; and a rehabilitation program specialist with the Ohio Department of Mental Health.
As international director for a federal pilot-teaching program, she recruited and managed 70 English-speaking teachers throughout the world and taught English in Taiwan and South Africa for five years.
Walton has a master’s degree in teaching English as a second language, a bachelor’s degree in social sciences, majoring in systems and organizations, and an associate degree in applied sciences in mental health and mental developmental disabilities.
Walton said she accepted the head position at MYCAP specifically because she likes challenges, and she believes in the community.
“Nothing is impossible if you set your heart and mind to it. That’s my motto,” Walton said.
The 2012 MYCAP board officers are Jamael Tito Brown, chairman; David Arnold, vice chairman; Ron Chordus, treasurer; Frank Nolasco, assistant treasurer; and Nancy Wickham, secretary.