As an educator, Catherine Pavao’s home has always been in Dartmouth.

She landed her first teaching gig at the Cushman School in 2002, just after graduating college. Now, the DeMello Elementary School assistant principal was named the replacement for retiring DeMello principal Cathy Maccini, who is leaving at the end of the school year.

“I am very humbled and grateful for this opportunity,” Pavao said. “I already know the players in the game – I know the staff and kids too.”

Pavao’s teaching credentials include a year-long stint at the Cushman School before transferring to the newly opened Quinn Elementary School in 2003. She taught there until 2011, when she accepted her current position as DeMello’s assistant principal.

“It was a big transition,” Pavao recalled of the move from teacher to administrator. “I was also eight and a half months pregnant when I took this position, so I was a new mom and a new administrator at the time.”

But she settled into DeMello quickly. Working closely with Maccini, she led the introduction of the positive behavioral intervention and supports (PBIS) program – her proudest accomplishment yet.

Although she does not have any big plans or sweeping changes, she wants to continue Maccini’s legacy – her roots at DeMello go all the way back to the 1980s.

“I don’t know if it’s so much filling shoes, or doing justice to them,” Pavao said.

She pointed to a variety of enrichment programs – like the school’s Beyond the Books night, and PTO-sponsored carnivals – as traditions to continue, along with her mission to instill her own values of promoting effort and a growth mindset in her students.

Growing up, Pavao always had her sights set on education. Her mother, Elizabeth Ponte, worked in education for 35 years, and her grandmother was also a teacher. Watching her progress through her career and an early exposure to teaching is what pushed her into the field.

“She actually became an assistant principal when I was in the eighth grade. She was my assistant principal in middle school,” Pavao said.

When she's not working, her family keeps her plenty busy. She raises two daughters – five-year-old Madeline and three-year-old Liliana –with her husband Paul, a physical education teacher. The two met while they both worked at Quinn.

She’s also a math nerd and book worm, but she confessed she does not have as much free time to indulge in recreational reading between work and family.