Tisko Elementary School, the 2024 Tisko Parent Teacher Association, and Branford Public Schools established the Deborah Maloney Scholarship Fund in 2024 to provide a scholarship award fund for Branford High School students pursuing secondary education. The student selected each year shall be a graduate of Tisko Elementary School in Branford who is pursuing higher education in the healthcare field.

Debbie Maloney was born on November 28, 1949, in New Haven. She lost a seven-year battle with breast cancer on April 25, 2008. At that time, friends and family contributed funds to Tisko Elementary School in her honor and memory.

Debbie graduated from Sacred Heart Academy, Hamden, in 1967. She received her RN degree in 1970 from St. Francis Hospital School of Nursing in Hartford. Debbie worked in the coronary care unit of the Hospital of St. Raphael from 1970 until 1976. In 1972 she married the love of her life Dave Maloney and stayed at home while raising their two sons Derek and Jeffrey Maloney. When her sons entered elementary school, Debbie returned to the position of school nurse at Tisko Elementary School, Branford where she worked for 23 years.

Caring for children was her passion and she enriched the lives of countless children in the Tisko school and community. A regular contributor to classroom learning activities, she put together programs on health, hygiene and childhood diseases in support of the health curriculum. Through the nurse’s office, she orchestrated fund raising and charitable activities for the Branford Compassion Club, the Smile Train and the Branford Clothing bank. Debbie enrolled at Southern Connecticut State University and earned her B.S. degree, magna cum laude, in 1997.

Debbie was a warm, caring, happy-go lucky woman who had many dear friends and was well respected in the Branford community. She leaves a rich heritage of love and good will to everyone who knew her, and BCF is honored to ensure her legacy endures through this special scholarship fund.