Board Member 2006 - Present
Richard S. Scarsella is a Youngstown, Ohio native, a long time Boardman, Ohio resident and has studied and travelled extensively in western and eastern Europe, including the former Soviet Union.
He is the Choffin Career and Technical Center Job Training Coordinator, Youngstown City Schools. A summa cum laude graduate of Boston College, with a Bachelor of Arts in History/Secondary Education, he also has earned a Youngstown State University Master of Science in Education Administration and a Master of Science in Special Education. He has continued his studies at Ashland University, Walsh College and at studies at Kent State University, where he earned a Transition to Work endorsement.
Elected to the Governing Board of the Mahoning County Educational Service Center (now the ESC of Eastern Ohio) in November, 2005, Scarsella was also appointed to the Mahoning County Career and Technical Center (MCCTC) in 2006. He has served as president of both organizations. Appointed to the Mahoning Valley Regional Council of Governments (MVRCOG) governing board in 2017, he is also a member and former chairman of the Mahoning Soil and Water Conservation Board of Supervisors since 2010.
Scarsella has been active in community and non-profit work his whole life. Board membership has included the Boardman Boosters, St. Charles Home and School Executive Cabinet, the Youngstown Historical Center of Industry and Labor (Steel Museum), Ethnic Heritage Society, Sr. Jerome Mission College Advisory Board, the Mill Creek Metroparks’ Board of Commissioners Interview Committee and Brier Hill Cultural Center. He is a long time member of the Boardman Civic Association, Friends of Boardman Library and Friends of Fellows Riverside Gardens. On the Mahoning Valley Vision for Education task force, he represented Boardman. He currently serves on the MCCTC Foundation Governing Board and Youngstown Steel Heritage Museum Board of Directors. He recently was appointed to the Mill Creek Metroparks interview committee and the newly formed park citizens’ advisory development committee.
Known as a local historian, he is chairman of the William Holmes McGuffey Historical Society and former president of the Boardman Historical Society. He founded several Idora Park historical societies. In 2005, he published Memories and Melancholy: Reflections of the Mahoning Valley and Youngstown, Ohio, which is still in print today. He previously wrote a weekly column for Town Crier Publications and is a frequent guest speaker, at area historical societies, libraries and universities.