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Northeast Berks Chamber Announces 2019 Board Officers & First-Term Board Members

by Northeast Berks Chamber of Commerce

Jan 24, 2019
Passing the Gavel from Dustin Adam to John L. Scott

Kutztown, PA…On Friday, January 11, 2019, during the first Board of Directors Meeting of the year, the Northeast Berks Chamber announced new officers.  John L. Scott, Community First Fund, was installed as President; Alyse Mitten, Interlace Communications, Inc., was voted in as First Vice President; Connie A. Werley, Tompkins VIST Bank was voted in as Treasurer; and Clare Kilpatrick Benz, Hamburg Area SD, was voted in as Secretary.  All officer terms are one year with an option for a two-year term.  2019 marks the chamber’s 30th Year! Three new board members were also appointed.

John L. Scott is currently Vice President of Community Lending for Community First Fund in Northern Berks, Lehigh, and Northampton Counties.  Scott has over 15 years of financial services experience, including positions with PNC Bank, Santander Bank, and Citizens Bank. Scott lives by the motto, ‘do unto to others as you would have them do unto to you’; his hope is that he can assist the community in growing and prospering by helping all people and organizations achieve their financial goals.

Besides his ten-year membership in the Northeast Berks Chamber of Commerce, Scott was also the 2017 Member of the Year and served as both 1st Vice President and Treasurer in 2018.  Mr. Scott studied business and finance at Kutztown University.  He is also a 2011-2012 fellow for the Center for Progressive Leadership where he studied leadership development.

John L. Scott is a native of the Lehigh Valley and is enjoying raising his son Whitman and daughter Addysen with his wife Mercedes in Upper Milford Township, Lehigh County. His hobbies include electronics tinkering, photography, astrophotography, website development, camping, traveling and spending time with family and friends.

Alyse Mitten has been in marketing and advertising for her entire career. She started Interlace Communications, Inc, Shoemakersville, over 20 years ago.  She works in all aspects of the business, including sales, building websites, and training.

Interlace Communications, Inc. provides online and print marketing solutions for small- to mid-sized businesses. Our focus on online marketing uses a three-pronged approach by building websites with SEO and social media tools; email marketing to drive traffic to the website; and social media to find new clients. With print marketing, we focus on advertising in community papers, as well as through direct-mail promotions. Training is a big focus for our clients and the business community on subjects such as: email marketing and social media marketing. Along with creating marketing strategies, we also provide association management for the Mid-Atlantic Community Papers Association by running their day-to-day operations. MACPA is an organization of independently owned community papers and shoppers guides in the eight-state Mid-Atlantic region. With its combined circulation of over 4.9 million households, the Association provides marketing opportunities for businesses throughout the United States and, for its members, provides members benefits only available through the organization. All the activities, from sales to managing all facets of their annual conferences, are crafted by the talented team at Interlace Communications.

Through August of this year, Alyse also serves as the President of Berks Schuylkill SCORE.  She has been an active member of the Board of Directors of the Northeast Berks Chamber, wherein she also chaired the Nominating and Membership Committees in 2018.  When not working, Alyse enjoys being with family, singing, and dancing.

A native to central New York State, Clare Kilpatrick Benz earned a BA from Colgate University and an MA from Slippery Rock University.  She has been a Career Specialist at Hamburg Area School District for eight years.  Earlier in her career, Clare spent five years in career counseling at the University of Pittsburgh, Johnstown; seven years as Human Resources Director of Three Rivers Bank in Pittsburgh; a year in Student Activities at Penn State Berks; six years in alcohol and drug prevention education for Caron Treatment Centers; and two years coordinating a county-wide internship site through a grant-funded position.

In her role at Hamburg Area School District, she is a career resource for students from elementary school through Middle School and High School.  Clare partners with counselors at all grade levels to support both state-mandated career exploration objectives, as well as students’ personal career passions.  One of her annual projects is coordinating with counselors at Hamburg Area MS on a Career Fair.  She supports and helps to coordinate other programs like job shadowing and internships for students who may or may not yet know what they want to do post-high school.

Serving on the Board of the Northeast Berks Chamber is one example of her involvement in the business community.  On a cultural level, she is active in Hamburg’s Our Town Foundation, plays flute and piccolo in the Wyomissing Band, Inc.

New Board Directors were also approved as elected, including Mark D. Crossley, Esq., Scherline & Associates, Todd N. Klinger, Vice President, Integrity Services & Solutions, LLC; and Connie A. Werley, Business Development Officer, Tompkins VIST Bank.

Mark D. Crossley, Esq. is a life-long resident of Berks County, having been raised on a large dairy farm in Hereford Township before attending Penn State University and earning a degree in Administration of Justice.  Upon graduation from Penn State, Mark attended paralegal school and began his legal career as a paralegal with a personal injury and medical malpractice litigation firm. Mark enjoyed the practice of law and litigation so much that he decided to go to law school and attended Quinnipiac University School of Law. Showing his tenacity for the practice of law, Mark completed law school in two and one-half years, while still participating in school activities including the Moot Court Honor Society, Mock Trial Society, Phi Delta Phi International Legal Honors Fraternity, Student Bar Association Delegate and the Rugby Team. He also continued to work as a law clerk during his law school tenure.

After graduating law school, Mark returned to Allentown and distinguished himself as a tough negotiator and litigator, concentrating his efforts in representing injured people. He is one of the partners at Scherline & Associates a full-service personal injury law firm that represents victims of motor vehicle, motorcycle and trucking accidents, slip and falls, dog bites, work injuries and any other type of personal injury.  The Firm is headquartered in Allentown, PA, and provides services to the entire Greater Lehigh Valley area, eastern Pennsylvania and Berks County, where Mark still resides with his wife and four children.  Mr. Crossley has also been appointed to serve as an Arbitrator in the Court of Common Pleas of Lehigh County, and the Federal Courts of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, where he hears evidence and decides cases.

He also believes in community service and is President and Lieutenant of the Fleetwood Volunteer Fire Company, Treasurer of the Fleetwood Fireman’s Relief Association, President of Tarsus, Inc., Master of Forms of the Patriotic Order Sons of America, board member of the Lehigh County Bar Association and former President and youth football coach of the FAYFCA.  He looks forward to serving the members of the Northeast Berks Chamber of Commerce and to continue to move the Chamber forward.

Todd Klinger, Integrity Services and Solutions, joined the agency with a solid reputation for customer service excellence. Todd’s background is a business owner in the construction industry for 25 years. Todd enjoyed creating and maintaining stable relationships with large customers such as M&M Mars, Inc., The Hershey Company, Walmart, Caterpillar, and Harley-Davidson.

Todd is Vice President of the organization and head of Sales. Todd’s focus is the Employee Benefits Consulting division. In this capacity, he serves as a trusted partner to business owners.

Connie Werley’s banking career began in 1992, when the company was The First National Bank of Leesport. It started in Deposit Operations where she worked for 20-plus years of her career, working my way up to the Deposit Operations Manager. It was in April of 2013, after the merger with Tompkins Financial, that she accepted the position on the Retail side of banking as the Assistant Branch Manager at the Northpointe Office located along Rt. 61 in Leesport. In January 2015, she was promoted to Branch Manager of the Blandon Office located along Rt. 222 in Maidencreek. “What I like most about my job is the personal interaction with customers and the opportunity to meet so many other business professionals”.

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