HFA Board of Directors

Liesa Dodson - Board Chair 

New Salem Baptist Church - Culpeper VA

 Mike and Liesa established Hope for Appalachia Virginia Inc in 2015 and received the 501c3 in 2016.  Mike served four years in the United States Air Force prior to entering law enforcement.  He served on the North Charleston, South Carolina and Culpeper Police Departments prior to joining the Virginia Beach Police Department in 1984.  Mike retired with the rank of Lieutenant in 2011 after serving assignments in Operations, Investigations, and Personnel and Training.  He attended Germanna Community College (Associate), St Leo University (Bachelor), Old Dominion University (18 credit hours in Master of Public Administration), and Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary (Masters).  He has served as the Pastor at New Salem Baptist Church since 2009.

Liesa grew up in Northern Virginia and attended Fairfax United Methodist Church.  Liesa serves as the Marketing Director at the Harbor at Renaissance in Stanardsville, Virginia and has worked in the healthcare industry for the past 15 years.  She is active in numerous community organizations and teaches several classes on caregiving, dementia, and chronic disease self-management.  Liesa has served in children’s ministry most of her life including as Director of Children’s Ministry, AWANA Commander, VBS Director and Children’s Sunday School teacher.

In addition to serving at New Salem Baptist Church, Mike and Liesa have led Hope for Appalachia Va Team, Inc, a non-profit ministry that supports children in the Appalachian mountains of Eastern Kentucky.  Currently, Hope for Appalachia supports 35 schools and approximately 13,000 children living in some of the poorest communities in the United States.  This past year they have become active in prison ministry at Northern Neck Regional Jail in Warsaw, Virginia ministering to 460 inmates. 

We have been married for 38 years and have been blessed with four children.  We have two sons, Timothy (Dawn Marie) of Richmond, Virginia, Gregory (Erin) of Virginia Beach.  Both boys graduated from Greenbriar Christian Academy in Chesapeake, Virginia.   We also have two daughters that we adopted from China, Mikaela, who attends Germanna Community College, and Ellie, who graduated from Culpeper Christian School and is currently in the 9th grade at Kings Light Christian Academy.  We have also been blessed with one grandson, Michael Dodson, who is three years old.  We enjoy spending time at Maranatha Farm in Boston, Virginia, hiking, gardening, and spending time with Little Michael in Virginia Beach.