New River Community College faculty member Dr. Emily Paige Cash was recently appointed by Governor Ralph Northam to serve on the Virginia Behavioral Health and Developmental Services Board for a four-year-term. Cash is a professor of English at NRCC.
This appointment is significant to Cash because of her sincere belief in the words of President John F. Kennedy’s paraphrasing of Biblical scripture when he said, “For of those to whom much is given, much is required.”
“Different iterations of those words are a family creed that goes back for generations,” said Cash. “We help people. And I love the fact that at NRCC, I’m not unique in that belief. That’s what we do here: we help people.”
Cash’s community involvement includes serving on the Pulaski County School Board and the Calfee Cultural and Community Fundraising Committee. She is also vice president of the Pulaski YMCA Board of Directors and president of the Virginia Alpha Phi Chapter of Alpha Delta Kappa. Prior to teaching at NRCC, Cash worked for many years as an English teacher at Pulaski County High School.
Cash lives in Pulaski with her husband Jon and their daughter Emma. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Virginia Tech, a master’s degree in English from Radford University, a doctoral degree in English from the University of Alabama, and a Certificate of Technical Writing from Kennesaw State University.
The VBHDS Board is a policymaking body consisting of nine non-legislative citizen members appointed by the governor and confirmed by Virginia General Assembly. Members are charged with establishing program, fiscal and other policies for Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, state-run hospitals and Community Services Boards.