Catherine Sullivan DeCarlo

Catherine Sullivan-DeCarlo is an experienced journalism and PR practioner whose varied career has included news reporting, government communications and teaching.

She is the former director of communications for New Haven Public Schools, the state's second largest school district. She holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Southern Connecticut State University and a master's of science in communications management from the S.I.NewhouseSchool of Communications at Syracuse  University.

Catherine was a newspaper reporter for eight years. She left reporting to direct the media campaign of John DeStefano, Jr., who ran for and was elected Mayor of the City of New Haven in 1994. Catherine served as the Mayor's press secretary for four years.

Catherine has won several communications and journalism awards for her work, including several from the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education, and a 1984 reporting award from the CT Society for Professional Journalists. In 2004, she won the Seton Elm Ivy Award, Yale University, for positive collaborations between Yale University and the New Haven Public Schools. In 2007, she was honored by the New Haven Business Times as one of 20 noteworthy women in New Haven. Catherine coordinated New Haven's successful application in 1998 as an All-AmericaCity and directed the application process that led to Superintendent of Schools Dr. Reginald Mayo being named Connecticut Superintendent of the Year and a finalist for National Superintendent of the Year.  She is president of CONNSPRA, the Connecticut chapter of the National School Public Relations Association. She has also served on the New Haven Commission on Substance Abuse Policy and Prevention.