NEW CASTLE, Pa. – Two longtime Forward Lawrence employees have been promoted to lead their respective divisions as the organization’s leadership evaluates what it wants in a new CEO.
Forward Lawrence is the organization formed in 2021 by Lawrence County Economic Development Corp. and Lawrence County Regional Chamber of Commerce.
“Even though we have two separate organizations, economic development and the chamber, we are all still the same staff and on one payroll,” Lyndsey Overby said.
Overby, a five-year employee of the organization, was named director of the chamber. Diane Richardson, who started in 1991 with LCEDC, was promoted to director of economic development. She acknowledged there was some hesitancy when the two organizations came together but, “being on the inside of that from the very beginning,” saw that it was “a fantastic idea” for the chamber to essentially become the marketing department of economic and community growth in Lawrence County.
“It’s an alliance that I would recommend to any municipality that has these types of organizations,” she said.
The promotions followed Chip Abramovich’s departure in June as CEO of Forward Lawrence after just three months on the job. He succeeded Benjamin Bush, who departed the organization in September 2025 after being with the organization a little more than two years to accept a position with the Allegheny Conference.
Frank Moses, a former president of the Lawrence County Regional Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, is serving as interim CEO of Forward Lawrence.
“With the recent leadership transition, we felt it was a good time to look at the responsibilities and leadership structure within Forward Lawrence,” said Scott Stone, chairman of the chamber board of directors. Rather than asking Richardson and Overby – who already were serving as assistant directors and handling “significant responsibilities within their respective areas” – to take on additional duties during the transition, it made sense to recognize their experience and the work they were already doing by promoting them to the director positions.
“They both have been developing for quite a while in those roles, so it was a natural fit,” said Ethan Russell, chairman of the economic development corporation’s board. “It was just a good time to bring them up to the permanent position.”
Forward Lawrence’s economic development role includes providing access to loan programs such as local revolving loan funds and commonwealth of Pennsylvania loan programs, Richardson said. Staff also assist with writing grant applications from regional, state and federal funds, mostly for industrial businesses, and with workforce development.
“We have also really focused on industrial site redevelopment projects lately,” she continued.
These include refurbishing the former Elliott Bros. Steel facility and preparing to take on the former St. Francis Hospital building, which Richardson said Forward Lawrence should officially own by month’s end. Local engineering firms are helping assess the structure to determine what, if any, of the building can be reclaimed or whether the whole building needs to be demolished.
“It’s a problem that’s been in the city of New Castle now for several years, and we’re trying to solve that,” she said. “If it comes down, then it will be a vacant 6-acre site that we can use for either commercial or some kind of mixed-use project.”
As chamber director, Overby oversees daily operations, membership, events, sponsorships, the Leadership Lawrence County program, marketing, social media and the newsletter. Chamber membership is higher than it has ever been; programs are growing; and it hosts more events than ever before.
Having Moses in the interim CEO role has provided Forward Lawrence with “the ability to be thoughtful about that process rather than rushing to fill the position,” and the promotions of Overby and Richardson helped better define the organization’s leadership structure going forward, Stone said.
“With strong directors providing day-to-day leadership for both the chamber and economic development areas, we can take a fresh look at the CEO role and determine where that individual can provide the most value to Forward Lawrence,” he said.
“We’re not in a big hurry to make a decision,” Russell agreed. Putting Moses, Overby and Richardson in their current roles allows the organization to “let the dust settle,” allowing its leadership to evaluate in a few months where to go with the CEO role, or even if that is the right title for the role.
Both Overby and Richardson see the CEO role as important to the organization.
Where two directors handle day-to-day operations, a CEO is responsible for strategic planning and forecasting “how we’re going to finally keep the organization going, and making those connections with the people that can help us accomplish our goals,” Richardson said.
The organization’s executive committee is “just in the early stages of figuring out what their next steps are going to be,” Overby said.
“It’s a really unique, niche position,” she said. “It takes a certain kind of personality and person to be in it, because it’s a combination of both community development and economic development. A lot of people either have great experience in one or the other.”
Richardson said one of the focuses might be to try to find a local candidate to fill the position, though she is unsure whether that means just within Lawrence County or in the broader region initially, then possibly branch out from there.
“It’s hard to step into this job and be running out of the gate when you’re still trying to familiarize yourself with the programs that we have, the people and businesses that we have here and our elected officials, so that’s what we’re trying to avoid,” she said.
Pictured at top: Diane Richardson and Lyndsey Overby.