Anthony M. Anthony is an executive marketing and communications professional currently serving as the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) for the State of Connecticut. As the first CMO, he oversees the newly created Office of Statewide Marketing and Tourism, working tirelessly to shape and promote a compelling narrative about Connecticut as an exceptional place to live, work, and play.

Previously, Anthony served as the Special Advisor and Communications Director to Governor Ned Lamont, where his storytelling skills and strategic guidance contributed to Governor Lamont’s high approval ratings.

Anthony’s expertise was built over the years in the private sector as a creative director and strategist at boutique brand communications agencies in New York City guiding Fortune 500 brands across the tech, media, consumer packaged goods, hospitality, and healthcare sectors. 

Beyond his professional endeavors, Anthony enjoys a good cup of coffee, cooking for his wife and two children, and voraciously consuming pop-culture from the last 70 years.

Senator Derek Slap
Deputy Majority Leader

Chair: Aging

Vice-Chair: Human Services
Member: Commerce; Higher Education & Employment Advancement

About Derek:

State Senator Derek Slap was elected in the special election on February 26, 2019 to represent the 98,000 residents of the 5^th State Senate District towns of West Hartford, Farmington, Burlington, and the western portion of Bloomfield.  He had previously served one term as state representative for the 16^th House District, serving constituents in West Hartford, Avon and Bloomfield.

Derek makes his home in West Hartford with his wife, Alex, daughters Maggie and Zoe, and son, Charlie. He is Vice President of Advancement at The Village for Families and Children, working to grow and support technology activity across the state. Derek is a lecturer at Sacred heart University and has been a lecturer in Political Science at Yale University and an adjunct professor at Quinnipiac University, Central Connecticut State, Southern Connecticut State and Eastern Connecticut State universities. In 2017 he won an “ARC Angel Award” from ARC for his advocacy on behalf of people with disabilities

Legislative Goals:

As always, one of Derek’s most important goals is enacting an affordable, balanced and sustainable biennial budget that meets the disparate needs and demands voiced by a wide variety of Connecticut residents. Derek works across party lines to identify potential spending cuts and ways to make government more efficient wherever possible.

Derek believes that Connecticut’s fiscal health also depends on creating a stronger economy – one that generates more revenue from high-quality jobs. Workforce development, investments in transportation and higher education must also play a role.

Derek believes that the communities he represents enjoy wonderful public schools, and that it is critical, as difficult budget decisions are made in Hartford, that these communities are not unfairly targeted. Derek believes that all children deserve a quality education which provides them with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed. Derek also believes public school teachers must be embraced by policymakers as partners in the effort to strengthen and protect our schools.

Additional Legislative Priorities:

This year, Derek is focused on addressing the public health crisis of teen vaping with a multi-pronged approach: increasing the smoking age from 18 to 21; prohibiting the sale of flavored vaping liquids (which are especially popular with teens); and taxing electronic cigarette liquids at the same rate as cigarettes and other tobacco products.

Derek is also committed to fighting age discrimination in the hiring process by seeking to

prohibit employers from inquiring about  birth or graduation dates on employment applications; the bill has more than two dozen co-sponsors and is supported by the Connecticut AARP.

Recently, Derek has sought to close the wage gap between men and women in Connecticut, arguing that different pay for the same work isn’t only unfair, it’s bad for working families, the economy, and for Connecticut’s overall competitiveness. Derek supports pay equity between men and women to protect employees and prospective employees from gender-based discrimination on wages and compensation.

Derek has also worked to improve transparency and accountability on the Metropolitan District Commission, supporting legislation that adds a non-voting member to the MDC board of directors in the form of a consumer advocate, and requiring the MDC to disclose detailed information about applications for land use, zoning, wetlands and tax abatements before it holds a hearing or acts on the request. Derek has also sought drought protections written into law so bottled water companies cannot continue to pump water from reservoirs during a drought while families are asked to conserve.

Experience and Education:

Derek is the former Chief of Staff for the Senate Democratic Caucus, where he managed a 70-person staff, helped achieve significant budget savings, and worked with citizen activists to address issues such as gun safety, school security and mental health reforms; GMO labeling; and access to high quality pre-k.

Before his tenure as Chief of Staff, Derek was Director of Communications for Senate Democrats for four years. Derek has also been Deputy Chief of Staff/Communications Director for the Secretary of the State, Communications Director for the DeStefano for Governor campaign, and Director of Public Information for the City of New Haven.

You may recognize Derek from TV; he was a news anchor and reporter at NBC Connecticut from 1999 until 2004, and before that worked at TV stations in Florida and at CNN Headline News in Atlanta.

Derek earned his MBA from the UConn School of Business and bachelors’ degrees in Broadcast Journalism and International Relations from Syracuse University, where he graduated Magna cum Laude.

Bill is the Board Chair of the Cedar Hill Cemetery & Foundation.  Now retired, he was a Dental Anesthetist.

Established in 1864, Cedar Hill Cemetery is a nonsectarian, privately-managed, not-for-profit organization. For generations, Connecticut families have chosen this unique and beautiful place of remembrance as the final resting place for themselves and their loved ones.

Cedar Hill Cemetery’s reputation as a premiere example of the American “rural” cemetery is enhanced by its historic landscape, finely sculpted monuments, and natural resources. The Cemetery’s landscape and ornamental foreground of ponds and meadows is unique in New England cemetery design.

Cedar Hill is the final resting place of a number of distinguished individuals. Its historic structures and many of its beautiful monuments were designed and executed by prominent artists. The grounds encompass 270 acres of landscaped woodlands and watercourses providing a natural habitat for a wide variety of wildlife.

Throughout its history, Cedar Hill has maintained its standards of excellence by providing its families with comprehensive cemetery services of the highest quality. Our full range of services, on-site crematory, beautiful memorial grounds, and professionally maintained landscape all serve to make Cedar Hill one of America’s finest cemeteries.

Born and raised in Connecticut, Jess LeClair attended Connecticut College where she received a BA in environmental studies and international relations. She went on to receive an MS in climate science and policy at Bard College. Jess began her professional career in the Office of Climate Change at the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP); she went on to join the newly created Connecticut Institute for Resilience and Climate Adaptation (CIRCA). While at CIRCA, she became keenly aware of the importance of local governments as a lever of change and was thrilled to join Sustainable CT’s founding executive director as one of the program’s primary staff members.

“I’m thrilled to step into the executive director role at Sustainable CT,” said Jessica. “As a life-long Connecticut resident, I’m inspired by the positive changes we are seeing across our cities and towns as they engage with Sustainable CT. It has been a privilege to support the development and growth of Sustainable CT since its inception and I look forward to working closely with municipalities as they move forward on their sustainability programs. We’ve accomplished a great deal together, but there’s still so much more to do, and I’m excited to be a part of the progress.”

A boutique Manhattan literary agency, the O’Connor Literary Agency moves your project from scattered thoughts, to pages-long manuscript, to publisher and finally to sale. Tell your story; share your unique take on the world.

Since his first job out of college at Sesame Workshop, Kevin has always worked at the intersection of business and creative. He has hands-on experience in a variety of media:  animation, live action TV, toys, live shows, music, educational apps, and “the sweetest plum” t-shirts*.  In addition to Sesame, he’s worked for Fisher-Price, VTech, Kidz Bop, Barnes & Noble, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. He’s inked deals with Chrysler, Nestle, Intel, and all the major publishers.

As an agent, Kevin takes on serious adult nonfiction (Brian McCullough’s How the Internet Happened, Claude Andrew Clegg’s The Black President). On the adult fiction side, he represents Afghan and Iraq War Vet Adam Kovac (The Surge)  and the acclaimed Colin Winnette (Users).

For middlegrade readers, he’s the agent behind the Russell Ginns’s Samantha Spinner series; Cas Hyman’s Mango Delight; and Steven B. Frank’s Armstrong and Charlie.  He reps the picturebooks Papa, Daddy & Riley by Seamus Kirst; Honeysmoke by Monique Fields; and A Is for Audra by John Robert Allman, illustrated by Peter Emmerich.

He is a Columbia College grad and the founding director of The Center for Nonfiction, a Columbia University Community Scholars Project dedicated to helping journalists and scholars understand the formal needs of trade publishers.

Here are two podcasts he’s done about how he got into agenting and what he’s looking for / how he works:

• One Thing Or Another: Kevin O’Connor
• Writing Gym: What Does a Literary Agent Do?

*Krusty the Clown called the t-shirt concession “the sweetest plum.” (The Simpsons, “Krusty Gets Kancelled,” Season 4, Episode 22, 1993.)”

Bart: That's all right, Krusty. 

Lisa: We're getting 50% of the T-shirt sales. 

Krusty: What? That's the sweetest plum!

See: Oconnor Literary Agency

Bruce Putterman is CT Mirror’s publisher and CEO, responsible for the strategic direction of the organization, revenue generation, product innovation, reader engagement, and all business operations.

Before joining CT Mirror in 2017 Bruce owned and operated a West Hartford-based consulting practice for 16 years, providing strategic planning and marketing services to more than 50 nonprofit organizations, advocacy groups, public agencies, private equity firms, and other for-profit clients. His interest in journalism dates back to his college years when he worked in commercial radio and TV news. Bruce served as an elected member of the West Hartford Board of Education from 2003 through 2015, including three years as chair of the board.

He has a Bachelor of Arts in History and an M.B.A. in Marketing from Cornell University.