Connecticut Department of Transportation

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05/09/2023

TRANSPORTATION COMMISSIONER EUCALITTO ANNOUNCES DEPUTY COMMISSIONER APPOINTMENTS

Connecticut Department of Transportation (CTDOT) Commissioner Eucalitto is announcing the appointment of two Deputy Commissioners that will complete the agency’s senior leadership team, many of whom have started recently. Karen Kitsis and Laoise King will join the agency beginning in June.

Karen Kitsis currently serves as the Deputy Executive Director for the Office of Capital Project Development at Sound Transit in Seattle, Washington. She has held many leadership positions and worked on several significant projects, including a system-wide planning process resulting in a successful $54 billion ballot measure. Kitsis brings her experience working in several states managing large-scale projects to the CTDOT.

Laoise (lee-sha) King is currently serving as the Chief of Staff for Mayor Harry Rilling in the City of Norwalk. She oversees day-to-day city management, is responsible for city administrative functions, and has been instrumental in securing funding for local projects. King has also held various roles in John DeStefano’s administration in the City of New Haven, bringing decades of legal, legislative, and advocacy experience to the organization.

More detailed biographies and headshots are included below.

“Karen and Laoise bring significant experience to our team and will complement our already incredible leadership team well,” said Connecticut Department of Transportation Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto. “I am proud of the team of Bureau Chiefs we have assembled in the agency, many of whom were promoted during the height of the pandemic at a time when we were trying to accomplish a mammoth amount of work with little certainty about what may come next. Every single person on this team has stepped up in ways that have helped ensure the public can travel safely, and that the future of transportation is bright. Our new Deputy Commissioners will be a much-needed support to our team, and help ensure we can complete more work, and best serve our residents.”

The CTDOT has five bureaus, each overseen by a Bureau Chief, as well as leadership in the Commissioner’s Office that joined the team in January:

Elizabeth Keyes, Chief of Legal and Regulatory Affairs, and Lora Rae Anderson, Chief of Staff, joined the Commissioner’s Office in January.

Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto was nominated by Governor Lamont and confirmed by the legislature also in January 2023.

Karen Kitsis

Headshot of Karen KitsisKaren Kitsis is currently the Deputy Executive Director for the Office of Capital Project Development at Sound Transit in Seattle, Washington. Prior to taking on this role, her previous positions at Sound Transit included serving as South Corridor Development Director, and she started at the agency as Senior Planning and Project Development Manager. While at Sound Transit, she was responsible for overseeing the preliminary engineering and project development of commuter rail, light rail, bus, and bus rapid transit projects totaling over $10 billion across four of Sound Transit’s subareas. 

Kitsis managed the system-wide planning process known as ST3, which resulted in a successful $54 billion ballot measure. She also led the long-range planning division with staff conducting alternatives development, multi-modal corridor-level planning studies, environmental analysis, capital project development, and ridership forecasting.

Prior to moving to Washington to work at Sound Transit, Kitsis worked as Transit Development Officer at Hampton Roads Transit and was a planner at Kimley-Horn in Tallahassee, FL. Before that, she started her career as a Project Manager at Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission in Woodbridge, Virginia. Karen has a BA from Grove City College and a MA in Urban Planning from UCLA.

Laoise King

Headshot of Laoise KingLaoise King has served as Chief of Staff for Mayor Harry W. Rilling since 2016. King brings over 24 years of experience in the practice of law, municipal government, and legislative advocacy to the position. King oversees all administrative functions of the City at the direction of the Mayor. In addition to day-to-day city management, she provides guidance to elected officials on policy and planning and works closely with the City’s State and Federal delegations to achieve the City’s legislative agendas and secure funding for municipal projects.

Prior to coming to the City of Norwalk, King served in various capacities in local government and non-profit sectors. Most recently, King worked as Vice President of Education Initiatives at United Way of Greater New Haven, where she was a senior management team member and was responsible for designing, overseeing, and managing community investments, partnerships, and programs related to education. Before joining United Way, King served the City of New Haven as Assistant Corporation Counsel, Deputy Chief of Staff to Mayor John DeStefano, and finally as Chief of External Affairs for the New Haven Public Schools.  In those roles, she managed relationships between the City/school system and the broader community, including state and federal policymakers, stakeholders, funders, and the public. King also advised Mayor DeStefano on public policy matters, implemented Mayor’s Office initiatives, and assisted the Chief of Staff in the City’s day-to-day operations.

King returned to Connecticut in 2005 after living in Colorado for ten years. Before returning to Connecticut, King worked as an Assistant City Attorney for the City of Denver. King received her Juris Doctor from the University of Denver College of Law (1999) and her BA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (1995). She is admitted to the Connecticut, New York, and Colorado State bars.



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