Catherine Fisk Natale is currently the Acting Bureau Chief for the Bureau of Educator Assessment and co-director of the Connecticut SAELP Project. She joined the Department in 1987 and has worked primarily on the development, validation and administration of teacher performance assessments and a state-wide teacher induction initiative (the Beginning Educator Support and Training [BEST] Program).

The BEST Program is a nationally recognized teacher induction program which provides mentors to all beginning teachers and assesses teachers for licensure through a portfolio assessment process.

In addition, Natale has coordinated state education policy development with the Connecticut Department of Education as well as served as chief author of numerous Department policy documents. She served as assistant to the Commissioner for the 1996 and 1997 Governor's Education Summits and represented Governor John Rowland's office for the National Education Goals Panel in 1995-96. Prior to joining the Connecticut State Department of Education, she worked as a financial manager at Aetna Life and Casualty.

Natale holds a M.A.L.S. degree from Wesleyan University, and a PhD in political science from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Her area of research is public policy development.