Sheila McCreven

Sheila McCreven-Helfenbein

Sheila McCreven was re-elected in May 2009 to a second term on the Woodbridge Board of Education, where she currently serves as Chairman. She was first elected to the WBOE in 2005 after a decade of extensive involvement at Beecher Road School and in the broader community. She and her husband Mike Helfenbein have lived in Woodbridge since 1997 and have three children who attend public schools in town.

Ms. McCreven was elected Chairman of the nine-member Woodbridge Board of Education in July 2007, after having served from 2005 to 2007 as Board Secretary. She was also appointed by the Board of Selectmen to serve on the Town Building Committee charged with developing an infrastructure upgrade project for Beecher Road School.

She brings a professional background in communications and public relations, as well as wide-ranging experience serving as a volunteer in leadership roles in her community. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. She is currently employed at Yale University as Communications Director for a federally funded research grant at the School of Public Health. Previously, she was employed at Yale School of Nursing's Office of International Affairs, and at the New York Headquarters of the United Nations, in the Department of Public Information.

Ms. McCreven is a past President of the Beecher Road School PTO, where she has been an active member since 1998. She joined the Amity League of Women Voters in 2001 and is currently a member of the League's steering committee, having served in the past as Co-Vice President and Chair of its Community Conversation on Education committee. From 2006 to 2009, Ms. McCreven served on the Board of Directors of Sound View Community Media, as the designee of the Woodbridge First Selectman. She is currently the Secretary of the Woodbridge Democratic Town Committee, where she has been an active member since 2004. In her spare time, Ms. McCreven enjoys genealogy research and has traced her maternal lines back to several of the families who settled the town of Woodbridge in the 1660s.