Lt. Colonel Sean Connolly, 1999, speaks about his nomination on Feb. 26th.

Lt. Colonel Sean Connolly, CUA Law class of 1999, has been nominated by Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy to serve as commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Veterans' Affairs.

Connolly currently works for Pratt & Whitney as the global ethics and compliance officer. He is also a Lt. Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve, currently serving with the 655th Regional Support Group headquartered at Westover Air Reserve Base.

Prior to joining Pratt & Whitney, Connolly was a senior associate at Greenberg Traurig, LLP in Washington, DC as a member of the government contracts and homeland security practice groups. He also previously served on active duty for over seven years as an Army Judge Advocate in a variety of positions, most recently as a trial attorney with the contract and fiscal law division of the U.S. Army Legal Services Agency. A veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Connolly served as a prosecutor and brigade legal advisor with the 101st Airborne Division, where he was responsible for trying all courts-martial, non-judicial punishment, elimination boards, and administrative separation actions within two brigades, as well as advising on operational and administrative law matters. Connolly has taught as an adjunct lecturer at CUA Law and served as a law clerk to the Honorable H.F. "Sparky" Gierke in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. He served as an elected member of the National Board of Directors of the Federal Bar Association from 2006 to 2011, and was also President of the Pentagon Chapter of the Federal Bar Association from 2004 to 2005. He now serves as an appointed member of the Federal Bar Association's National Council. His military awards and decorations include the Bronze Star Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Joint Service Commendation Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, the Army Achievement Medal, the Iraqi Campaign Medal, and the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal. He is married to Carol A. Connolly, CUA Law class of 1999, and they have two children, Sean and Brendan. Connolly begins his service as commissioner on March 16.