Deborah Cylke has recently become a member of the Board of Trustees of Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island.

A Pawtucket resident, Ms. Cylke was appointed the Superintendent of the Pawtucket School Department in July, 2010.  Pawtucket serves 8,500 students in 15 schools in an urban setting.

Prior to her appointment in Pawtucket, Ms. Cylke had a 32 year career in the Washoe County School District in Reno, Nevada.  WCSD is the second largest school district in Nevada with 63,000 students in 95 schools.  There Ms. Cylke served as a teacher, middle school assistant principal, high school assistant principal, middle school principal, Area Superintendent and Superintendent of Secondary School.  As the Secondary Schools Superintendent, her responsibilities were for 29,000 middle and high school students in 11 comprehensive high schools, an alternative high school, a career and technical high school, an early college high school and 14 middle schools.

Following her career with WCSD, Ms. Cylke represented Creative Learning Systems of Longmont, Colorado, an education technology company which designs stimulating learning environments for middle and high school students in robotics, control technology, circuitry, pneumatics, mechanics and pre-engineering, alternative and renewable energy and publishing and multi-media tools.

Improving academic achievement, creating safe school environments, supporting principals and teachers, and closing the achievement gap have been primary goals throughout her career.

            Ms. Cylke earned a Masters degree from the University of Nevada at Reno and a Bachelors degree from California State University, San Jose, CA.