Q. What is your position with the Red Cross?

A. I am chief executive officer of the Northeast Pennsylvania Region and the Greater Lehigh Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross.

Q: How did you get involved with the Red Cross?

A: I met the previous Executive Director John Hughes when I went through the Leadership Lehigh Valley program in 1997 after moving to the Lehigh Valley. After completing the program, I started working with the Red Cross as a volunteer in 1999 and became a board member in 2002, serving two six-year terms before joining the Red Cross as executive director for the Greater Lehigh Valley Chapter and northeast Pa. regional chief executive officer in April 2013. I stayed involved with the Red Cross as a volunteer and made the decision to join the Red Cross staff because I believe in the mission of the organization and have seen it in action across the region over the past 14 years. We are able to help people in need every day and I wanted to be a part of the team that leads the effort.

Q: What is your background?

A: After graduating from Mansfield University in 1984, I spent the next 29 years working in the banking industry all over the eastern half of Pennsylvania. I moved my family to the Lehigh Valley in 1997 after the Meridian Bank/CoreStates merger and worked for a number of local community banks in the Lehigh Valley, Bucks and Montgomery counties over the past 15 years. The Red Cross was a constant through a number of job changes, so joining the Red Cross seemed like a natural fit after serving as a volunteer for so many years.

Q: What does your position as CEO involve?

A: It's my job to serve a dedicated team of staff and volunteers here in the Greater Lehigh Valley Chapter and across 16 counties in Northeastern Pa. and guide their efforts to fulfill the mission of the American Red Cross.

The American Red Cross prevents and alleviates human suffering in the face of emergencies by mobilizing the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors. On a day-to-day basis, I am meeting with community leaders, working on mission delivery with staff and volunteers, attending community events and helping to support our efforts to secure the funding we need to operate.

The Red Cross exists because of the tremendous support we receive from the public, corporations, foundations and the United Way agencies across our region. We also rely on hundreds of volunteers in the Lehigh Valley and thousands across the region to deliver the mission. It's a privilege for me to lead this team every day and I do my best to make sure everything works for them so they can focus on taking care of the clients and communities we serve here and across the region.

Q: What does the Red Cross do on a local level? What is the local service area?

A: In 1917, three Red Cross chapters were organized within the greater Lehigh Valley: Bethlehem, Easton and Lehigh County. In 1988, these chapters merged to form the Lehigh Valley Chapter and in 2012, the Greater Lehigh Valley chapter became one of 13 chapters that make up the American Red Cross Northeast Pa. Region.

The Greater Lehigh Valley Chapter includes Northampton, Lehigh and Carbon counties. The mission statement of the American Red Cross is to prevent and alleviate human suffering in the face of emergencies by mobilizing the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors.

The Red Cross is known throughout the world as the "disaster people," and we respond locally to over 100 small disasters such as house fires, sinkholes, winter weather emergencies and local flooding incidents each year. We also prepare and plan for responding to large disasters so we are ready when something like SuperStorm Sandy impacts our region. What a lot of people don't know is that we are just as active during times of non-disasters.

Q: How many people work for the Red Cross locally?

A: We have a team of approximately 16 staff and several hundred volunteers who work out of the Greater Lehigh Valley Chapter, many of whom provide services here and in other communities across the region. Our total staffing for the region is about 50 paid staff and over 2,000 registered volunteers.

Q: What other services does the Red Cross provide?

A: The Red Cross Service to Armed Forces program is actively involved with our nations' military and their families. SAF holds pre-deployment, during deployment and post-deployment briefings and trainings to assist soldiers and their families. Additionally, through the emergency communications center, we can relay emergency messages from a family to their service member who is deployed overseas if the family is unable to make contact. Of course, we also remain dedicated to our veterans, supporting them through Wounded Warriors, Holiday Mail for Heroes and partnering with Meals on Wheels and transportation services to and from their medical appointments at VA hospitals.

When it comes to health and safety courses, the American Red Cross is the nation's leading provider, educating more than 9 million Americans per year. Classes such as: CPR/AED, first aid, lifeguard training, babysitter training, family and senior preparedness and others are all available within our community. Whether it's a necessity for job training, a business or organization that offers it to employees, or to prepare in case someone's life is on the line, the Red Cross is ready to teach and can do so at our chapters, in your school or workplace, community centers and even online.

The American Red Cross provides 40 percent of the nations' blood and blood products. We are also the only organization supplying our country's military with blood. Approximately 5.6 million blood donations are collected each year by the Red Cross. About 3.3 million volunteer blood donors roll up their sleeves each year.

Through our International Services Program, we have worked with the global Red Cross and Red Crescent network to help the world's most vulnerable communities and we've been doing so for the last 130 years. Last year alone, we helped 29 countries with disaster relief countries like Japan, Haiti and most recently, the Philippines. The Red Cross is also helping to educate future humanitarians with teaching classes like International Humanitarian Law.

Of course, none of what the Red Cross does would be possible without our amazingly dedicated volunteers. In fact, 94 percent of the American Red Cross workforce is made up volunteers.

I guarantee there is a volunteer vacancy for you at the Red Cross, no matter what your talent may be. Volunteers can do anything from answering phones at a chapter, assisting at a blood drive, lending communications expertise, teaching a safety course or becoming a disaster volunteer and responding to the scene of a fire to care for those who just lost everything. As a volunteer, you may choose to be deployed to other parts of the country during a national disaster. Or, you can stay local and help at a Red Cross shelter when a community is in need. The phrase, "Pay it Forward" epitomizes a Red Cross volunteer. Helping others, no matter how big or small, will have a lasting effect on all of those involved.

Q: How do you access the services the Red Cross provides?

A: Accessing services is easy. The chapter is open daily from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Call 610-865-4400, or visit us on the web at www.redcross.org/ pa/bethlehem. You can also check the Facebook page at www.facebook. com/redcrossglv or follow us on twitter @glvredcross.