Michael A. Pascucilla

Dr. Pascucilla was appointed as the Chief Executive Officer/Director of Public Health for the East Shore District Health Department (ESDHD) in 2010, which serves the Towns of Branford, East Haven, and North Branford, Connecticut. Prior to ESDHD, he served as the Assistant Director of Health for the City of Hartford, Department of Health & Human Services, and past positions include the University of Connecticut, Department of Environmental Health & Safety, Yale University, Department of Epidemiology & Public Health and several local public health districts.

Michael holds a Ph.D. from Queen Margaret University's Institute of Global Health & Development, a Bachelor of Science Degree in Public Health/Nutrition from Southern Connecticut State University, and a Master's Degree in Public Health from the University of Connecticut's School of Community Medicine & Health Care. Dr. Pascucilla is a Nationally Certified Environmental Health Specialist/Registered Sanitarian and has over 30 years of experience as a public health official in local, state, and federal government. He is very active in the public health field and is a former Site Visitor for the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB). He currently sits on a Board of Directors/Past President for the Connecticut Association of Directors of Health (CADH) and on the Board of Directors for the Connecticut Public Health Association (CPHA) and the Conference for Food Protection (CFP). Dr. Pascucilla is also the past President of the Connecticut Environmental Health Association (CEHA) and served within the leadership of this organization for over seven years, where he continues to be an active member.

Dr. Pascucilla holds several National and Connecticut State public health certifications and over the course of his career, he has been very engaged as a public health official in governmental and academic settings. His experience includes hands-on participation in several national/federal grant-funded initiatives, including a practicum at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Yale University. His experience also includes health prevention education and promotion among diverse community populations, staff supervision, administrative/budget/grant management, population health policy, workforce development, code enforcement, volunteer/committee, food/water safety, indoor air quality, and communicable disease prevention/education.

Dr. Pascucilla is also a Part-time Professor at Southern Connecticut State University in the School of Health & Human Services, Department of Public Health, located in New Haven, Connecticut. He has combined his passion for this professional field of public health and higher education as local health departments strive to hire and find well-qualified, public health college-educated employees. He is actively mentoring/working to improve public health training/hands-on courses to assist college students in their career preparation. To that end, his organization also regularly promotes the public health field at public events/venues, public schools, and colleges, and hosts high school and college students with internships to attract young adults into the next generation of the public health workforce.

Dr. Pascucilla's public health research focuses on climate change and food allergies, which includes a U.S. Patent. In 2016, he received the National Environmental Health Association's Professional Sabbatical Award, where he researched food allergies in the United Kingdom. Michael also researched, designed, and secured grant funding to build the world's first solar electric pump-out vessel, which serves the east shores of Connecticut's Long Island Sound.

With respect to his experience outside his positions as a public health official and an educator, Michael is committed to this professional field by improving the quality of his local environment and is very engaged in his hometown community. Michael resides in the Town of Guilford, Connecticut, with his wife and two sons, and their family enjoys running, boating, fishing/shellfishing, swimming, and the many other recreational activities that Long Island Sound offers.