The Daily Bulletin Archive

Please join the Buffalo State Political Science and Public Administration Department for the next talk in its spring 2023 Public Service Lecture Series, presented by Buffalo State alumna Catherine Connolly, professor emerita of the University of Wyoming's School of Culture, Gender, and Social Justice and a former member of the Wyoming House of Representatives, on Wednesday, April 12, from 4:30 to 5:45 p.m. in Caudell Hall 123.

Dr. Connolly earned a Ph.D. in sociology (1992) and a J.D. (1992, cum laude) from the University at Buffalo, and a B.S. in information systems management from SUNY Buffalo State (1984). She coauthored the book Outlaw Women: Prison, Rural Violence, and Poverty in the American West as well as numerous studies and reports on the wage gap between Wyoming’s men and women (one of the worst in the nation). She was elected to seven terms in the Wyoming Legislature (2009–2022) representing a portion of Laramie, Wyoming, and by her peers to serve as the minority floor leader. As a legislator, Representative Connolly served on numerous committees, including positions as vice chair of both the Education and Revenue committees, and on the powerful Appropriations Committee. She sponsored or co-sponsored numerous successful bills, including Wyoming’s anti-human trafficking statute. She was a tireless advocate for expanding Medicaid to address the needs of those in poverty as well as to support local hospitals, and revisions to the tax code for equity. As Wyoming’s first openly LGBTQ legislator, Representative Connolly sponsored numerous bills for recognition of human rights. Dr. Connolly is depicted in The Laramie Project, the 2000 play by Moisés Kaufman (made into an HBO feature film in 2022) about the reaction of Laramie residents to the 1998 savage murder of gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming.