Community Action Southold Town has hired a new executive director to replace Linda Ruland, who recently retired.
Cathy Demeroto, a Suffolk native who currently lives in Maryland, will be joining the team at CAST on June 19.
“I’m excited to serve the community and work together to improve the lives of the people,” Demeroto said in a phone interview. “I’m looking forward to expanding on the great work they’re already doing.”
Demeroto has extensive experience in the non-profit world and has served as executive director for Maryland Hunger Solutions and as director of Catholic Charities of Baltimore, where she did advocacy and education work and handled public policy and programming. She also practiced law, representing families with children with disabilities and dealt with special education law.
Currently she is the resource development officer at paws4people foundation, a non-profit which trains service dogs for veterans and children with disabilities.
Demeroto is no stranger to the East End, having spent childhood summers in Mattituck and vacation time in Southold and Greenport.
“I have fond memories of clamming, catching minnows and swimming in Peconic Bay,” she says. “It was always my plan to come back to the North Fork.”
In the fall she fulfilled that dream by purchasing a home in Southold where she will live with her two children.
Demeroto says she is looking forward to helping residents become independent through education and job training and aims to enhance the community with her work at CAST.
