Foundation Board Welcomes New Members, Officers

WEST LIBERTY, W.Va., Jan. 23 -- West Liberty University issued the following news:

West Liberty University Foundation recently announced its new board members and officers.

New officers were elected at the October meeting and include attorney David Croft who now serves as chairman, and financial expert John Dolan as vice chairman.

Croft is an attorney with Spilman, Thomas and Battle, Wheeling. His primary areas of practice are tax law, health care compliance, commercial transactions, estate planning and administration.

He is a member of the American Health Lawyers Association, the Ohio County Bar Association, the West Virginia State Bar Association and the American Bar Association and is listed in West Virginia Super Lawyers for Estate Planning & Probate, Corporate/Business and Tax law. He was named by the Best Lawyers(TM) 2014 "Lawyer of the Year" for Tax Law in Morgantown, W.Va.

He earned his bachelor's in accounting at WLU in 1989 and graduated from West Virginia University College of Law in 1999. Croft resides in Wheeling.

Dolan, a Wheeling native, is managing member of Dolan Finance, LLC, which was formed in 2015 and serves as general partner for Dolan Real Estate Finance, LP, a private investment fund in the MidAtlantic region of the United States. He also serves as non-executive chairman of the board and audit committee chair of Atlantic Coast Financial Corp. and serves as a partner in ProfitFocus CFO, LLC, a C-Level advisory and coaching firm, providing high level financial and strategic consulting services.

For more than 20 years, Dolan served as CFO at First Commonwealth Financial Corporation then went on to lead the corporation as CEO. The company completed 13 bank acquisitions and three non-bank acquisitions during his tenure.

Prior to joining First Commonwealth and its predecessor, National Bank of the Commonwealth, Dolan was staff accountant at Barnes, Saly and Company, Certified Public Accountants.

He is an experienced angel investor and has served on the Board of Trustees for the Catholic Institute of Greensburg, Pa. and the advisory board to the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

Dolan earned his bachelor's in Business Administration from WLU in 1978 and resides in Indiana, Pa.

New board members include Tom Cervone, Donald Nickerson and Beth Raimonde Weaver. All are alumni.

Cervone serves as executive director for Dogwood Arts, a non-profit that promotes eastern Tennessee's art, cultural and natural beauty.

He previously served as the first executive director of the Historic Tennessee Theatre Foundation, a nonprofit established to preserve the historic Tennessee Theatre in downtown Knoxville.

Prior to that, Cervone spent 23 years managing University of Tennessee's Clarence Brown Theatre, a professional theatre in residence at UT, Knoxville (UTK). Cervone was active in the UTK community, serving on many student, staff and faculty organizations. He also received the Chancellor's Citation for Outstanding Service to UT in 2010.

A longtime member of the Actors' Equity Association, Cervone earned his undergraduate degree in speech and English with an emphasis in theatre from WLU in 1975 and a master's of fine arts and MBA from UT.

In 2014, the Kelly Theatre Green Room was named in his honor in appreciation for his donation to the Kelly Theatre Encore Campaign. He resides in Knoxville.

Nickerson is an attorney with Bowles Rice. He focuses his practice on assisting business clients through every phase of the business life cycle, including startup and entity counseling, general corporate transactional matters, mergers and acquisitions, and divestiture.

His practice also includes residential and commercial real estate transactions and trust and estate planning and administration and he is admitted to practice in both West Virginia and Ohio. He has served as a Municipal Court Judge for the City of Wheeling, since 1999. He also served as an Ohio County Fiduciary Commissioner, from 1999 through 2004.

Prior to joining Bowles Rice, Nickerson practiced law and served as a vice president and trust officer for United Bank, Inc., where he was responsible for trust administration in the northern West Virginia market. He also has significant experience in the preparation of certified mineral title opinions, drilling and royalty opinions and title examinations.

A 1982 graduate of WLU, Nickerson earned his law degree at Capital University Law School, Columbus, Ohio. He resides in Wheeling.

Weaver is a lifetime resident of the Ohio Valley and an owner of a major automotive dealership. She and her husband Dave own and operate Wheeling Volkswagen Subaru, located along National Road, Wheeling.

Weaver graduated from West Liberty in 1985 with a bachelor's in business administration. She also earned an MBA at Wheeling Jesuit University. A 1981 graduate of Mount de Chantal Visitation Academy, Weaver is very active in the business and social community.

She is past chairperson of the Oglebay Institute Mansion Museum Committee and is a lifetime member of the Wheeling Symphony Auxiliary. Weaver also is a sustainer member of the Junior League of Wheeling and has served on the Board of Trustees for Wheeling Country Day School.

She and her family reside in Wheeling.

The Foundation Board meets for its next quarterly gathering on Friday, Jan. 27.

Other members of the board include: E. Marc Abraham (treasurer), Glen Dale, W.Va.; Marty Adams, Salineville, Ohio; Annissa Anderson, New Martinsville, W.Va.; Charles Annett, Weston, Fla.; Bruce and Donna Berlage, McClain, Va.; Jason Blair, Arlington, Va.; John Bonassi, Pittsburgh, Pa.; Keely Camden, Wheeling; Clyde D. Campbell, Wheeling; David Coffaro, Pittsburgh, Pa.; Russell Dunkin, Wheeling; Linda Edwards, Wellsburg, W.Va.; Lynne Exley, Wheeling; James Frum, Wheeling; Daniel I. Joseph DDS, Wheeling; Bob Kota, Wheeling; John McCullough, Triadelphia, W.Va.; Henry Marockie, Wheeling; Norman B. Moyes, Brighton, Mass.; Judith Bartell Paesani (secretary), Wheeling; E. Alex Paris, III, Atlasburg, Pa.; Greg Stewart, Wheeling; Cynthia Stickley, Powell, Ohio; Thomas Tuttle, Wheeling; Gary West, Naples, Fla. and Jeremy West, Wheeling. President Stephen Greiner serves as an ex-officio member of the board.

The West Liberty University Foundation supports the University through the cultivation, investment and stewardship of private funds. For more information, please contact Executive Director Angela Zambito-Hill at [email protected].

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