VersAbility Board Chair Committed to Community Success

If you want to work, you should be able to. That’s a simple concept, yet for people with disabilities, it’s a challenge. VersAbility Resources strives to change that, believing that people with disabilities should lead full and productive lives of their choosing. 

The nonprofit’s mission resonates with Joycelyn Spight Roache, a longtime member of VersAbility’s Board of Directors and Chair of the Board for 2024. She represents Old Point National Bank, a 100-year-old, Hampton-headquartered company that has kept its same name for a century and is intentional in being a full partner in the growth and development of the Hampton Roads community. 

“We all work well together as a team to ensure that we serve our business community and meet their needs,” said Spight Roache, Senior Vice President and Credit Underwriter Manager. “I enjoy working with businesses and helping them determine how they can meet their goals — how to best structure their requests for financing and review their entire financial picture. I am in the background working with lenders to determine how we get the requests approved.” 

Spight Roache was born in Chicago and does not miss those cold temperatures, though is happy to return to her native city whenever she can. She earned her undergraduate degree in Business with a concentration in Finance while studying at Florida International University. A mentor encouraged her to work in banking, and for an admitted numbers geek, it ended up being a perfect fit. 

I enjoy working with businesses and helping them determine how they can meet their goals.

Spight Roache continued her education at Hampton University, completing a Master of Science in Management. She has been with Old Point for nearly 13 years. Old Point has been a longtime supportive sponsor of VersAbility events and that’s where Spight Roache met VersAbility CEO and President Kasia Grzelkowski, who invited her on a business tour.  

“I was fascinated by the work they were doing,” Spight Roache said. “I feel like every person, whether differently-abled or not, if they have the desire to work in this community, they should be able to do that. VersAbility provides some very strong outlets to that end.” 

In addition to the VersAbility Board, Spight Roache serves on the board for the Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities (VCIC) and only recently stepped down from the board of the Peninsula Industrial Finance Corporation. She won VCIC’s Humanitarian Award in 2021 and was named a Women in Business honoree by Inside Business in 2020. 

Spight Roache and her husband, Jon, often combine their love of music and travel and recently returned from Cuba where they attended the Havana Jazz Festival. They regularly travel to Tennessee to visit family and enjoy meeting friends in Napa Valley each year. They especially enjoyed meeting with the VersAbility team of workers at Pearl Harbor during their 2023 trip to the Hawaiian Islands.