Mental Health Advocates of Western New York
Names Alexander J. Vandenbergh, CPA to Board of Directors and
Amy Szefel Starck as Director of Development
BUFFALO, New York – Mental Health Advocates of WNY (MHA) elected Alexander (Alec) J. Vandenbergh, CPA to its board of directors. Vandenbergh is a supervisor with the firm Dopkins & Company, LLP Certified Public Accountants and Consultants. A member of the firm’s Assurance Services Group, he performs audit and review services, with special interest in serving health and human services clients.
Prior to joining Dopkins & Company in 2018, while attaining his M.B.A., Vandenbergh served a multi-year term with a local charter school in the AmeriCorps VISTA program. He began his career at the school as a resource developer, where he was instrumental in various program, development, and community partnership initiatives, with a particular focus in building supports for students of immigrant and refugee backgrounds. He stayed on with the school after his AmeriCorps service to assist with bookkeeping and other special projects.
Vandenbergh received both his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Business Administration in Professional Accounting from Canisius College. During his time at Canisius, he also completed internships in government and with a local refugee resettlement agency.
Amy Szefel Starck joins MHA as director of development, a newly created position. Starck has more than twenty-five years of not-for-profit experience forwarding the missions of educational institutions, health care organizations and social services agencies. She has led several successful major gifts campaigns and fundraising events, including Buffalo Academy of the Sacred Heart’s $4.5 million capital campaign, the Buffalo Brewfest, and the Dennis J. Szefel, Jr. Memorial Golf Tournament to benefit Roswell.
Starck holds a Bachelor of Arts in Public Communications from State University of New York at Buffalo and is a graduate of Canisius College Essentials of Fund-Raising Class. In 2012, she completed The Independent School of Management Academy Program.
She is a resident of the Elmwood Village and in her free time she enjoys time with her family, traveling and volunteering in the community.
