Alden Mead, an incumbent candidate for the North Haven Police Commission hopes to be elected to an additional four-year term this November. He is a native of Connecticut and has been a resident of North Haven since 1992. He is a combat veteran who served his country with distinction in the 1st Cavalry Division in Vietnam. Alden’s dad was a career police officer, and, upon his return from Vietnam, Alden also became a police officer, graduating from the Connecticut State Police Academy at the top of his class. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Connecticut Association of Police Commissioners.
In 1972, Alden took a job in health care, which led to his becoming a faculty member of the Yale Medical School where he worked for more than twenty years, and still holds the part-time faculty position of Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Ophthalmology. During his time at Yale, he has published numerous scientific and medical papers. He also became Co-Director of the Yale Marine Mammal Stranding and Study Center and was appointed by Department of National Marine Fisheries Service to represent the United States as Observer and Guest Scientist to the International Whaling Commission (serving in Australia for a number of months).
Following his full-time work at Yale, Alden joined a large non-profit, non-governmental organization, ORBIS International, as a director of that organization, fighting blindness around the world by traveling, teaching and bringing teams of doctors and engineers to numerous Developing Countries such as, Mongolia, Ethiopia, India, China, El Salvador, Cuba, among many others. He has also been a guest lecturer and visiting scientist at universities nationally, and around the world.
Settling down somewhat, Alden then became CEO of the Eye Center of Southern Connecticut, where, under his watch of approximately ten years, the company more than doubled in size, adding nearly fifty employees, three locations, and more than doubling revenues.
Mead has taught courses at Quinnipiac University in the areas of Critical Thinking, Inquiry, Global Health, and World Poetry. Currently he teaches courses in Global Health and Healthcare Business. At Quinnipiac, he was also a representative to the Faculty Senate, and member of the University Education Committee.
Mead is a member of American Legion Post #76, a life member of the Quinnipiac Trail Association and the Sleeping Giant Association, as well as belonging to the North Haven Historical Society and the Sierra Club. He is a past president and treasurer of the Hamden/North Haven League of Women Voters. He is also a former chairman of the North Haven Democratic Town Committee, and currently Secretary of the Cable Advisory Council of South Central Connecticut and was also appointed by the Governor to the three-member Board of Examiners for Opticians of the Connecticut Department of Public Health.
Alden graduated with a J.D. degree from the University of Connecticut School of Law, a B.S. degree from Charter Oak College, and credits and certificates from Yale School of Organization and Management, Yale School of Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale Law School, Northern Illinois University (Vietnamese Language), as well as the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. During law school, he also served as an intern in the field of immigration to Bruce Morrison, Congressman (and Chairman of the House Immigration Committee), 3rd United States Congressional District of Connecticut.
Alden has volunteered for the American Red Cross International Services, Asian Community Services of New Haven, IRIS (Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services), and for Yale New Haven Hospital Travelers Clinic as Interpreter (Vietnamese).
In his spare time, he enjoys gardening, carpentry, hiking with his dog, reading, fishing, and spending time with friends.
Alden Mead is currently a North Haven Police Commissioner.