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East High grad leads Ohio Department of Aging

Submitted photo Youngstown native Ursel McElroy, director of the Ohio Department of Aging, is shown at a speaking engagement. Over the past two decades, she has served in various offices of state government.

YOUNGSTOWN — Ursel McElroy was a good student at East High School. She was a cheerleader and marched in the band. McElroy was named to both the homecoming court and prom court.

She and her two siblings shared a bedroom in a “pretty small apartment” until late in her sophomore year, when her parents were able to move the family into their own East Side home.

“We didn’t live without, but to call us middle class is far away from what I would define as middle class,” she said when asked in a telephone interview last week about her growing-up years.

When it came to her future, she was stumped.

“I didn’t know what I was going to do, but I knew I was going to do something,” she said.

She decided to go to The Ohio State University after a guidance counselor called her into the office and asked her what her plans were.

“Quite candidly, I didn’t have any,” she said.

But the counselor helped her think about what she might do with her life and helped her apply at the university. The day she moved in at Ohio State was the first day she had ever been there.

“From there, I met great people, worked really hard. I had some fun, but I’ve always had this desire to do more. I’ve always felt like I could do more. I think that’s a lot of what motivates me now, then, probably forever.”

EDUCATION AND CAREER

McElroy would earn a bachelor’s degree in psychology and go to work for the Franklin County Department of Human Services, the agency now known as the Department of Job and Family Services. Her job was to investigate elder abuse.

A 24-year career followed in which she moved to the Franklin County Office on Aging, Ohio Attorney General’s Office, Ohio Department of Youth Services, Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. In January 2019 , Gov. Mike DeWine named her director of the Ohio Department of Aging.

Last month, DeWine also appointed her to chair the minority health strike force that on Thursday unveiled a plan to improve minority health regarding the coronavirus, which disproportionately affects African-Americans. Youngstown Mayor Jamael Tito Brown is also a member of the strike force.

McElroy’s 25-year ascent to the top position in state government dealing with older citizens was slow and steady.

INFLUENCE

The 1987 East High School graduate remembers that some of her motivation came from East High Principal Lock P. Beacham Sr. and the way he helped students understand their potential.

“He was always saying to us that you are somebody second to none. I never forgot that. In fact, there was a big poster in the building when you come in.

“It was important for us to hear that. And it meant something, and he held us to a really high standard. And the teachers wanted us to do well, and they would pour into us positive things.”

When asked about that, Beacham said last week McElroy was an “excellent student, nice young lady, positive attitude. I’m so proud of her.”

Beacham, a longtime Youngstown Schools administrator, school board member and Youngstown City Council member, said McElroy “believed in herself and had backup from her parents.” He said McElroy came into high school with a positive attitude.

“She is an excellent example for young people about what it takes to reach your ambitions and reach your goals,” he said.

“You don’t have to have a college education, but you have to have a attitude that I am going to be independent. I always told them don’t depend on a man or somebody else. Your destiny is within yourself.”

GOVERNMENT WORKER

McElroy spent about 10 years in her Franklin County positions, working with crime victims, abused children and abused elders.

At the attorney general’s office, she became deputy director for education and policy, where she again focused her efforts on crime victims. This time she also worked on issues such as domestic violence, human trafficking, sexual violence and missing children.

The common threads in those jobs was helping people get justice and equality.

“When I worked in the field with people who were victims or alleged victims of some sort of abuse, going back and forth to the courts. That was just about as close as you can get,” she said.

She appreciated being in a policy making position with the attorney general’s office and helping to ensure that sexual assault victims had access to an an assault exam, that the evidence from their exam was tested and that services for such victims were provided.

DeWine said McElroy is “very smart, she’s very articulate. She’s very passionate about kids about older Ohioans. She’s very strong. No nonsense, gets things done.”

McElroy was already working in the crime-victims section at the Ohio Attorney General’s Office when DeWine was elected attorney general.

“She would come in and give me briefings, and I was always very impressed with her ability to verbally brief me. She was always succinct, articulate. Her thoughts were always very well thought out and reasoned,” he said.

“She had a background not only with crime victims, but she had worked with seniors, so she actually came to me. What I look for are people who are innovative, who come up with new ideas, and she came to me. She had the idea of creating an elder justice unit in the attorney general’s office, and I loved the idea.

“And we did that because we had eldery people who were being scammed out of money, so we really needed to help the local law enforcement go after these scammers,” DeWine said.

COMMON THREAD

McElroy says the common thread in her work has been justice and fairness. “I never lose sight of the people,” she said. “That is what drives me.”

McElroy said that when she talks to staff members, she wants to know, “How will this be for the mom, the dad, the person who needs it today.” She thinks her formative years inYoungstown and her 25 years in Columbus both have shaped her.

The Ohio Department of Aging is deeply involved in issues surrounding the coronavirus, especially how it affects people living in long-term care facilities, such as nursing homes.

She said it was apparent even before the virus started to infect Ohioans that people in the state’s 1,000 nursing homes and 750 assisted living facilities would be at great risk.

“When you think about a concentration of individuals who are highly susceptible to the virus congregating in one place, the risk is great,” she said. “In an aging population, the immune system becomes a bit more compromised over time.”

She asks that anyone with questions about care for people living in long-term care to contact the state long-term care ombudsman program at 1-800-282-1206. The ombudsman program has regional volunteers.

runyan@tribtoday.com

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