Senator Cathy Cook, R- Mystic, is serving her seventh term in the Connecticut State Senate, representing eight towns and three boroughs in southeastern Connecticut. Senator Cook is the Chief Deputy Republican Leader of the State Senate. She is co-chairwoman of the Program Review & Investigations Committee, the legislature’s watchdog committee, and she also serves as a member of the Appropriations Committee, the legislature’s budget-making committee, and as the Senate’s ranking member of the Commerce Committee. She also serves as a member of the Environment Committee and Public Health Committee.
Senator Cook concentrates her work in Hartford in the areas of economic development, improving the business climate of Connecticut, healthcare reform, advocating for people with disabilities and supporting the growing biotechnology industry in Connecticut. She has authored legislation in the areas of healthcare for women, tourism promotion, inclusion of people with disabilities in our communities, and legislation to improve our environment, including Long Island Sound.
Senator Cook was honored as the 2001 National Legislator of the Year by the Biotechnology Industry Association, the world’s largest association representing the biotechnology industry. During the awards ceremony at the Connecticut State Capitol Patrick Kelly, the association’s national director of state government relations, praised Senator Cook for her “exemplary” support of the growing research-based BioScience Cluster in Connecticut and her “keen understanding of the value that new and innovative medicines bring to the world.”
She is the Connecticut Director for the National Order of Women Legislators and has addressed national conferences of legislators from across the nation at the National Conference of State Legislators and the Council of State Governments. She is a member of the Subbase Realignment Coalition that is defending the U.S. Naval Submarine Base in Groton. The Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard appointed her to the Board of Directors of the National Coast Guard Museum Association. She also serves as on the state’s Board of Protection and Advocacy for Persons with Disabilities. Senator Cook has advised the President’s Academy for Mental Retardation under Presidents Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and Bush.
Senator Cook has earned a reputation for creatively solving problems. As a mother of a son with Down Syndrome, she learned to develop innovative solutions by establishing Connecticut's first supported employment program teaching job skills and placing adults with mental retardation in jobs in the community. SEABIRD Enterprises has served Connecticut more than 20 years. Senator Cook founded the TEENLINE/Hotline for youth to prevent teen suicide attempts, and her steadfast advocacy for quality-integrated education resulted in establishing the nation's only regional multicultural magnet school joining eleven school districts.
Senator Cook has received numerous legislative awards for her work. Among her honors include “Legislator of the Year” by the Connecticut State Medical Society, The American Psychologists Association, the Connecticut Association of Non-Profit Organizations, The Child and Family Agency of Southeastern Connecticut, the Hospice Council of Connecticut, The ARC of Connecticut, the Connecticut State Firefighters Association and as “A Woman of Distinction” by the Girl Scouts of Connecticut.
In September 1988, she was named the first of Family Circle Magazine's "Women Who Make a Difference" and in 1989, she received the "KLEENEX SAYS BLESS YOU AWARD" from the Kimberly Clark Corporation. When Charles Kuralt featured Cathy Cook on CBS-TV "Sunday Morning" on Christmas morning 1988, he said, "She gives the Gift of Dignity."
Senator Cook graduated in 1973 with a degree in Human Ecology from Connecticut College, which recently awarded her the Connecticut College Medal, their highest recognition of distinguished alumna. She is a national consultant in the health care industry. She lives and enjoys sailing in Mystic and visiting with her three grown children
