Longtime Penn Hills NAACP chapter president resigns, welcomes new leader

A longtime NAACP chapter president has stepped down from her role.

Joyce Davis, 64, of Penn Hills, who served as president of NAACP Unit 2278 for nearly 15 years, officially left her post March 26.

“After awhile, we need to bring in new people, new ideas,” she said. “I think this was a really good time. … We need to let the next generation do what they can do to move things forward. It’s always good to get young people at the table.”

Amy Alexander, 50, of Monroeville began her role as the chapter’s next president in January. Davis has helped Alexander with the transition since then.

The Penn Hills High School guidance counselor is excited to involve more Penn Hills residents, including former students, in the organization’s mission.

“The first order of business is to get our membership more representative of the population of Penn Hills. I think we’re underrepresented in terms of membership,” she said.

Alexander has served as the local chapter’s vice president and liaison for its veterans committee.

Davis is the executive director of the Lincoln Park Community Center on Ridgeview Avenue, a position she has held for more than 20 years. The organization runs a food pantry, among other programs, that reaches about 800 people a month.

Davis said moving forward, she will continue to focus her time and attention on the community center as well as a newly formed nonprofit, Western Pennsylvania Center for Just Solutions.

She said the organization is only about four months old but already has launched a clothes closet program run out of the LPCC from 4:30 to 6 p.m. every Wednesday and from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. every second Saturday.

According to its website, the Center for Just Solutions “envisions a society where all people, regardless of age, economic status, education level, health condition, race, religion, or societal class can live life with an equality of opportunity and a fairness of treatment.”