Terry DeCarlo
resigns from The Center after four years helping Orlando’s LGBTQ community.
Terry DeCarlo, who helped to lead Orlando’s LGBTQ community through the aftermath of Pulse, has resigned his position at The Center — this time for good — he announced Monday.
DeCarlo, 55, helped to lead the community center for the past four years, both as executive director and communications director. He stepped down once before, in late May 2016, just 12 days before the mass shooting at Pulse, the gay nightclub where 49 people were killed. Soon after, The Center’s board of directors said DeCarlo was “a critical leader to retain” as survivors turned to the agency for aid and moral support.
“I’ve taken The Center through three years of construction, and in the middle of that construction, we had the mass shooting,” he said late Monday. “I’m very proud of what we did, but I tend to take on the weight of the world.”
And, DeCarlo said, he neglected his own health amid the turmoil. In April 2017, he suffered a heart attack. Three months later, he moved from executive director to the communications job, but he said the post still proved to be too draining. “My doctor said you need to calm your butt down, so I’m finally listening,” he said. “I’ve put my heart and soul into this place for four years, and it’s in good hands. They have great leadership and a great vision.”
In December, after a five-month vacancy, The Center hired George Wallace as executive director.
DeCarlo said he has plans to take a job with a government agency in South Florida but that, because the move isn’t yet finalized, he can’t share the details.
If he does move, he said he and husband Bill Huelsman would be regular visitors to Orlando.
“I hope during my tenure at the agency, going through a complete facility overhaul to give Orlando a nice place to call home and then helping lead the community through one of the darkest times in history, that I made you proud,” DeCarlo wrote in a Facebook post. “Thank you again, Orlando, for all your love and support.”