Nominees for election to the Parish Pastoral Council
The following eight parishioners have been nominated to serve on the Parish Pastoral Council for a term beginning in the fall of 2025. There are six open slots on the Council, and parishioners may vote for UP TO SIX of these candidates to fill those slots.
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The election takes place over several weekends starting August 23–24 and continuing through August 31, 2025. These pictures and bios will be displayed in the Narthex and available to read here during the entire time, but ballots will only be available on the weekends. Only registered parishioners who have received the sacrament of Confirmation may cast a vote for the parish pastoral council.
Mark Fischer
Currently I am a retired businessman, having owned my own business for 25 years in New Jersey. After retiring, I embarked on a second career as an Insurance Underwriter. Once fully retired, we relocated to Old Lyme, joining our family who lives here. My wife Barbara and I have been active in Christ the King parish since 2018.
My activities while at Christ the King include:
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In 2019 I started co-coordinating the Small Christian Community that meets on Wednesday evenings.
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That same year I began working with the Harvest Festival doing intake for the Rummage Sale, and for the past five years I have been Intake Manager.
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In 2021 my wife and I began teaching Faith Formation with the First Communion class. I am still teaching Faith Formation.
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Currently I volunteer in the Church office processing the weekly offerings.Curre
I enjoy being active at Christ the King, ensuring a solid foundation for future generations. This will benefit not just my grandchildren, but others as well.
Barbara Gaudio
Barbara Gaudio has lived in Old Lyme and been a member of Christ the King Church since 1994. She and her husband Steven have 2 children, Rachael and Sarah. Barbara previously taught CCD and has volunteered for many years at various CTK functions, including the Harvest Festival and Christmas Pageant. She currently serves on the Planning Commission in Old Lyme and previously served on the Economic Development Commission. She also volunteered extensively in the Old Lyme School System while her children were attending.
Barbara graduated from college with a degree in Business and Psychology. She moved to Philadelphia and began her career in investment banking with Fidelity Bank. Moving back to Connecticut, she continued her career in real estate investment and development, as well as health care administration. After retiring, she opened Angels Watch in Old Lyme, which holds classes for cooking, baking and cake decorating.
Her daughters were also very active with CTK. They were altar servers for many years and camp counselors at CTK summer camp. Rachael was a lector throughout high school. After graduating from law school, she eventually returned to Old Lyme and continues to serve in that capacity. Sarah served in the choir. After college, she moved to NYC and currently has her own international contemporary clothing company. Steven is a physician and practiced in Old Saybrook for 34 years until his recent retirement. He currently serves on the Parish Finance Council and volunteers as a docent at Gillette Castle and Mystic Seaport.
Joe Haley
My family (wife Kim and son Gannon) and I moved to Old Lyme over a year ago from Trumbull, Connecticut (St. Catherine of Siena parish). We were married at St. John’s parish in Darien 23 years ago. I have been in corporate sales for 37 years, currently working as a sales executive with Oracle.
We have loved the people, town, and community in Old Lyme and feel that we have finally found a home here — and hope to continue to put down roots in the parish and the community. I’ve enjoyed getting to know other men in the parish as a member of the Men’s Club, and our family loves the liturgy and music here at Christ the King!
Our only child, Gannon Haley, will be returning to Hamilton College as a junior this fall. He is a starting inside linebacker on their football team, a VP of the Young Christian athletes, and attends daily Mass up at school. recruiting members of his football team to join him.
Having been raised an IBMers son, we moved every two to three years in my youth. So, my parents instilled an urgency of making a home wherever we lived — becoming active in our parish, neighborhood, and communities. “Home was where the dogs and cats lived” was a very true statement in my life. We lived in Tehran, Iran, from 1973 to 1976, embracing the families and friends in our lives at the time, whether they were Muslim, Christian, etc. And then we lived in Paris, France, from 1978 to 1981, and again our family was surrounded by families and peoples from all over the world and whatever their faith. The biggest lesson I learned was that people are people whatever their faith, that people are inherently good, and that all parents just want their children to grow up safe, healthy, and happy. All people; it’s the governments that can make things a little complicated.
My son and I attended last summer’s National Eucharistic Congress, and finally embracing His Real Presence Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity enabled me to overcome a longstanding resentment that I had with His Holy Church. This past year has been a very profound experience which continues to this day, driven by His message of Divine Mercy that he shared with St. Faustina as well as Our Lady’s message of Fatima, Nicaragua, and Medjugorje to turn back to her son and pray the rosary and the chaplet, and attend adoration and daily mass when available.
I’m very grateful to have two very humble shepherds guiding along this faith journey in Fr. Joe and Fr. Walter. I’m hoping I can give back a little of the love and compassion that has been shared with me.
Peter Kulas
My name is Peter Kulas and I am 72 years old. I received my Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in Economics and Accounting from the College of the Holy Cross in 1974 and my Master of Business Administration degree from Dartmouth College in 1976. I am a Certified Public Accountant and I still work preparing individual income tax returns.
From the fourth grade on I have always been involved in working for my parish community. I became an altar server at 10 years old and continued serving until I graduated high school and went to college. During my high school years, I also was a lector at Sunday masses. I served as a financial adviser to the parish council at St. Hedwig’s church in Naugatuck, CT for several years when my family and I were members of that parish. For a number of years, I helped prepare the annual budgets, monthly financial statements, and annual reports to the Archdiocese of Hartford for the parishes of St. Hedwig in Naugatuck, CT; St. Stanislaus Church in Bristol, CT; and Holy Cross Church in New Britain, CT.
For 14 years I have worked on teams that prepare and conduct annual Mens ACTS retreats for St. Luke parish in Southington, CT and Christ the King Church in Old Lyme. I am currently the treasurer for the ACTS Core group in Southington as well as the ACTS CT chapter. I have been a member of Christ the King Church since 2014 and have served as a Eucharist Minister at church and bring the Eucharist to home-bound individuals. I also belong to a “Small Christian Community” at Christ the King which meets weekly to discuss the prior Sunday’s Gospel readings.
I hope to continue my service to the Church by becoming a member of Christ the King Church’s Parish Pastoral Council.
Mary Martin-O’Brien
I am a Cradle Catholic from a large family, who strives to live life with Jesus at my center. Originally from Virginia, I settled in Connecticut after going to school here. I have one daughter and became a widow seven years ago. I received my Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing from UCONN, and then, after more than ten years of staff nursing, mostly in critical care, I received my MSN from Yale University. I am retired now, having the privilege of working almost 30 years as a Cardiology Nurse Practitioner at the Veterans Administration in both West Haven and Newington.
I would like to contribute to Christ the King’s mission as a faith community by serving on the Council to help our pastor realize his goals. I believe we have the tools and resources in the Mass, rosary, spiritual devotions, and each other to be Jesus’s hands and heart in our world.
Susan Millerick
Hello, and thank you for reviewing my nomination. I would be proud and pleased to serve on the Pastoral Council. My husband James and our three children live in Old Lyme. I was raised Catholic, attended parochial school, participated in church youth groups, and graduated with a degree in English and Philosophy from Boston College, a Jesuit university.
Professionally, I have spent 30 years working in Corporate Communications doing everything from public relations, employee communications, speechwriting, executive communications, investor relations, and more. At present, I am a small business owner offering communications consulting services. I love our church community and am active in it. I am proud to be a lector, served last fall as the Parish’s interim church secretary, and presently serve as the Safe Environments Coordinator and Child Advocate for the Religious Education Program. Most recently, I chaired our church’s 20th Anniversary Celebration committee. The gala was a successful event, enjoyed by more than 210 parishioners and raising over $25,000 for the church. The experience deepened my relationships with many in our Parish who encouraged me to consider this opportunity to serve. I am goal- and action-oriented and hope to bring my positive energy, ideas, and communication skills to Christ the King as a member of the Pastoral Council.
Tavia Murphy
I grew up in a small town in North Georgia where I met and married my husband, Nathaniel. I felt called to convert to Catholicism after attending several masses with Nathaniel’s family and reading any and all books on the Catholic faith that my future mother-in-law would loan me. I was welcomed into the faith in 2007 during the Easter Vigil mass at the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in Charleston, South Carolina.
I am the mother of 5 wonderful children. Our family has been blessed to visit and be part of many Catholic communities because of our military travels. I first became a parishioner of Christ the King in 2018 when the Navy brought our family to Connecticut. We were blessed (and excited) to return to Old Lyme and Christ the King again in 2022.
Most of my years have been filled with caring for my children, but some volunteer roles I have taken on are:
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Teaching the first communion class at Christ the King for the 2024 and 2025 classes.
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Serving as a Eucharistic minister at St Francis of Assisi Catholic Church on the Kings Bay Submarine Base.
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Being the ombudsman during Nathaniel’s tour on the USS West Virginia, where I served as the communication link between families and command leadership and helped families with any non-command questions or concerns that arose during their sailor’s deployment.
Nicole Rivera
Nicole Rivera moved to Old Lyme in the fall of 2023 with her husband, Chris. After unboxing their apartment, they decided to find a spiritual home, and began attending mass at Christ the King. After just a few Sundays, both Nicole and Chris began to fall in love with the community and welcoming atmosphere of CTK. Now, nearly two years later, Nicole is excited to be experiencing mass as a newly confirmed Catholic and is finding new ways to deepen her faith. She is excited by the opportunity to contribute to the pastoral council and continue her spiritual growth!
Nicole is a Pennsylvania native and a proud graduate of Seton Hill University in Greensburg, PA. Before relocating to Connecticut in 2018, Nicole had the pleasure of working with several Pittsburgh- and Philadelphia-based nonprofit organizations. In Connecticut, she has worked with distinguished organizations such as Goodspeed Musicals, TOMRA North America, Long Wharf Theatre, among others. In 2023, she expanded her expertise by earning a graduate certificate in Arts Leadership & Cultural Management from the University of Connecticut. Always looking to improve her skills, Nicole also completed the Leadership Greater New Haven program in 2024. She is currently working in fundraising and marketing as a manager with High Hopes Therapeutic Riding, bringing with her a wealth of experience from her diverse career in nonprofit administration, hospitality, and human resources.
Nicole values volunteerism and giving back to her community, something instilled in her during her time with the Sisters of Charity at Seton Hill University. Throughout her adult life, she has continued to find ways to become involved, from mentoring with Built By Girls to volunteering at local festivals and marathons; Nicole enjoys helping wherever there is a need. Beyond her role at High Hopes, Nicole has immersed herself in volunteer work there, too. She volunteers as a sidewalker, assisting participants who need extra support, and as a horse handler, guiding their equine partners through each lesson. Nicole also had the chance to volunteer at last year’s Harvest Festival at CTK and is looking forward to helping again this September.
Outside of her work and volunteerism, Nicole is passionate about a variety of hobbies, including woodworking, gardening, baking, and fitness. She cherishes her life in Old Lyme with her husband, Chris, and their dog, Hank, embracing creativity, exploration, and faith in all aspects of her life.