Paul Icatar, Senior Director of Community Programs

With over 20 years of experience in the human service and social work fields, Paul Icatar joined Sound Community Services in 2024 as Senior Director of Community Programs. After years of service across the Carolinas and the Pacific Northwest, Paul returns to Connecticut, bringing a commitment to empowering individuals toward stability, growth, and resilience. 

With a career start in residential care, Paul developed a passion for creating treatment plans that balance employment, community involvement, holistic health, and leisure. This path led to roles as case manager across Young Adults Services and IICAPS programs, later becoming an administrator at a high-acuity mental health treatment home in Oregon. In relocating to Myrtle Beach, Paul rekindled his interest in gerontological care as a supportive services coordinator bridging low-income senior housing developments in rural North and South Carolina. Within a leadership role at an agency providing autism supports, Paul expanded a 5-bed duplex into a 77-resident campus across three apartment buildings, developing programs to help pioneer a neurodiverse community model for the Carolinas. 

Paul is a licensed master social worker (LMSW) and received his bachelor’s and master’s in social work degrees from Brescia University in Kentucky. With a collaborative leadership style, Paul combines policy expertise and strategic partnerships to inspire innovation, adaptability, and widespread community support. His dedication to uplifting others and creating positive change reflects his belief that with time people get better. 

Outside of the office, Paul enjoys tabletop gaming with his family, reconnecting with friends across the region, leading the cheer at roller derby bouts, and practicing guitar as his favorite form of self-care.

What quote best captures your personal philosophy?

“I always wondered why somebody doesn’t do something about that.  Then I realized I was somebody.” – Lily Tomlin.

What is something unexpected that most people don’t know about you?

At the time I was hired at my first residential direct care position, I was planning to enter culinary school and was due to accept a job as a prep cook at a friend’s restaurant.

What do you most want clients of Sound Community Services to know about you?

My greatest joy is found in service and helping others.  I am always honored when asked to come to another’s aid and believe that successes in treatment and recovery are some of life’s greatest celebrations!