G. Richard Thompson, Chairman of Lackawanna College’s Board of Trustees, has announced the appointment of six members to the college’s Board, two returning and four first-time members. The Board will be joined by reappointed members Gerald Langan and Melanie Naro, Esquire, and new trustees Thomas F. Chamberlain, Jackie Johnson, Thom Welby and Mark R. Zimmer, Esquire.

“We are deeply pleased to see the return of Mr. Langan and Attorney Naro, both of whom have provided such strength to our Board in the past. And we are extremely fortunate to be adding first-time members with such extensive experience and diverse credentials,” said Mr. Thompson. “Their presence and abundant talents will keep the college on its present path of dynamic growth and innovative expansion as we head into Lackawanna’s second capital campaign.”

In addition, Mr. Thompson announced the departure of former Board members Dominick DeNaples, Thomas Henson, Albert J. Magnotta, Kathleen Rosetti, Larry Thompson and Dr. Midori Yamanouchi.

Thomas F. Chamberlain has owned and operated an insurance agency in New Milford since 1972. He is an exclusive agent for Nationwide Insurance and is a member of the National Association of Life Underwriters. He is recipient of the Community Service Award for Pennsylvania from Nationwide.

A graduate of Broome Community College in Binghamton, NY, he serves as a director of Peoples National Bank. He is past president and charter member of the Endless Mountain Business Association and charter member and secretary of the New Milford Community Men’s Club.

Mr. Chamberlain also is a charter board member of Community Foundation of Susquehanna County, charter member and board chairman of the United Way of Susquehanna County, president of Creative Adventures for Education, Inc., and board member of Sky Lake Camp and Retreat Center of the Wyoming Conference, where he has also served as a Special Needs Camp Counselor.

Jackie Johnson is currently Communications Manager at CraftMaster Manufacturing Inc., Towanda, a building products manufacturing company. Prior to that, she was employed by the Guthrie Healthcare System in Sayre and worked for 12 years as a reporter, photographer and editor for the Towanda Daily/Sunday Review, a Times/Shamrock publication.

A graduate of the former Williamsport Area Community College and Shippensburg University, Ms. Johnson lives in Monroe Township with her husband and son. A member of the Advisory Board of Lackawanna College’s Towanda Center and of the Board of Directors of the Wysox Community Chamber of Commerce, she also serves on the March of Dimes WalkAmerica Committee for Bradford, Sullivan and Tioga counties, is active in Boy Scouting and works with the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life event in Towanda.

Scranton resident Thom Welby, an advertising and promotion professional, is currently Senior Advertising Consultant for WNEP-TV. Mr. Welby attended Lackawanna College and later graduated from the Career Academy School of Broadcasting in New York City. He started his career as a disc jockey/news director for WPTS Radio in 1972. Over the course of more than thirty years, he has been affiliated with such entertainment and hospitality firms as WEZX/FM107, The Station Restaurant, Hotel and Nightclub Complex, KRZ-FM, FOX56, WB38 and NEPAToday.com.

Mr. Welby is a member of the Board of Directors of the Lackawanna County Convention and Visitors Bureau and serves as its treasurer. He is also secretary/treasurer and member of the Board of Directors of the Lackawanna Heritage Valley Authority. Mr. Welby is a member of the Board of Directors of the NEPA Arthritis Foundation, is a director for Stand for Children, and a member of the advisory boards of Dress for Success and St. Ann’s Media.

Attorney Mark R. Zimmer has a private law practice with an office in Honesdale. He was the District Attorney for Wayne County from 1992-2003, having served for ten years prior thereto as an Assistant District Attorney. During that time, he also had an active private law practice, with a special interest in trial law.

A graduate of Penn State University, Dusquesne University School of Law, and the National College of Advocacy, Attorney Zimmer presented a number of legal seminars to other attorneys and to judges during the years 1993 through 2003. A member of the Board of Directors of the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Institute, he is also a member of the Executive Committee of the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association, having previously served that organization as its Secretary/Treasurer, Vice President and President.

Mr. Zimmer was appointed as Special Deputy Attorney General to investigate and prosecute child abuse cases in Pike and Susquehanna counties and he helped to write and shepherd through the legislature the 1998 Amendments to Pennsylvania’s Child Protective Services Law. The attorney, who lives with his wife and daughter in Honesdale, is a member of the Pennsylvania and Wayne County Bar Associations, and the Pennsylvania and American Associations of Trial Lawyers.

Gerald Langan, former chairman of Lackawanna College’s Board of Trustees, returns to the Board after a three-year absence. Mr. Langan, a graduate of Lackawanna College and Bethel College in McKenzie, Tennessee, is the executive director of Goodwill Industries of Northeastern Pennsylvania. He is a past recipient of Lackawanna’s highest honor, the Seeley Distinguished Service Medal. This is his third tenure on the college’s Board.

Mr. Langan, who was a recipient of Pennsylvania’s Governor’s Outstanding Health Care Professional of the Year Award, has served on many boards and consistently worked for public service causes. Among the groups with which he has served are Interfaith Friends, Operation Outcome, the State Task Force for Supported Employment, the Pennsylvania Association of Rehabilitation Facilities, and the Municipal Industrial Development Authority. Mr. Langan lives in Scranton with his wife Fran.

Attorney and Vice President of the Dunmore Borough Council Melanie Naro, Esquire, also returns to Lackawanna’s Board after a by-law-mandated one-year absence. A 1989 graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and a 1993 graduate of the Dusquesne University School of Law, she maintains a private practice of law in Dunmore.

In addition to membership on the Board, Ms. Naro’s has served the college as an adjunct professor teaching business law and contracts, as a member of the advisory board to the Theatre Arts Program, as a consultant to the paralegal certification program, and as a participant in the college’s mentoring program. She is a recipient of the college’s Seeley Distinguished Service Medal.

Recipient of 2003’s Pennsylvania’s Governor’s Award in recognition of citizen volunteer services and community crime prevention, Attorney Naro has been active with the Dunmore Lion’s Club (first female member and first female president), UNICO Scranton Chapter (first female board member), St. Francis of Assisi Kitchen, Dunmore National Night Out Committee and Habitat for Humanity, among other organizations.