Perla Honored for Leadership in Service to Catholic Schools

By Caroline Lang

Senior director of the Alliance for Catholic Education, Stephen A. Perla, M. Ed., received the Elizabeth Ann Seton Award for his service to Catholic schools at the annual St. Paul Catholic Schools Consortium dinner on Nov. 7.

Since the 1970s, the Elizabeth Ann Seton Award has honored members of the community who have made significant impacts in the area of Catholic education.

St. Paul Consortium was established in 2007 to serve Catholic schools in North Worcester County, including Leominster, Fitchburg and Gardner, Mass. Since then, the board of directors has recommended people for the Seton Award to the diocese, most recently including Steve Perla.

Perla joined ACE in June 2008 when he was appointed the first director of ACE Consulting. Before becoming the superintendent of Catholic schools in Worcester in 2004, Perla served for more than 10 years as the founding executive director of the Parents Alliance for Catholic Education, a Massachusetts group which advocates on behalf of students and Catholic schools. He has also served in a variety of administrative positions in higher education and as mayor of Leominster, Mass., from 1988 to 1992.

As a member of Notre Dame’s national Task Force on Catholic Education, he contributed to the report it published in December 2006, Making God Known, Loved, and Served: The Future of Catholic Primary and Secondary Schools in the United States. ACE Consulting developed as a direct result of this report in order to provide administrators and Catholic school advocates with high-quality, affordable consultative guidance in marketing, strategic planning, investing and other areas essential to school success.

Since ACE Consulting’s inception in 2008 under Perla’s leadership, the program has launched major initiatives and forged strong relationships with many (arch)dioceses, inclduing Chicago, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Tampa, and Tucson.