New Board Members

Community Services for Children (CSC) recently announced new appointments to its Board of Directors, including Dr. Jarret Patton and Prof. Melanie Wursta.

Dr. Patton has served as Medical Director of Outpatient Pediatrics at Lehigh Valley Health Network since 2005. He takes pride in taking care of many of the underserved children in the Lehigh Valley. In addition to the CSC board, he serves as a children’s “champion” for the United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley and is an active member of the Children’s Coalition of the Lehigh Valley, American Association of Pediatrics (AAP), American Medical Association (AMA), National Medical Association (NMA), Pediatric Advisory Panel for Gateway Health Plan in Pittsburgh, on the Long Term Care Advisory Panel at the national Joint Commission on health affairs. Dr. Patton earned his medical degree from Case Western Reserve University.

Prof. Wursta is a professor and coordinator of the Teacher Education Department at Lehigh Carbon Community College. She is also project director for numerous education-improvement grants awarded by the US Department of Education. Among her many accomplishments, Wursta developed the Early Childhood-Early Intervention associates program. She also assisted in the development of an associates degree and specialized diploma program for Montessori training. She founded the Early Childhood Education Student Association. Prof. Wursta completed her master’s of education degree at Lehigh University.

CSC provides regional Head Start, Keystone STARS quality improvement services, PreK Counts preschool, and childcare subsidies for low-income families, in total affecting the lives of an estimated 50,000 children in 15 counties.