O’Donnell Named Director of Communications and Media at Chelmsford Public Schools
in News
CHELMSFORD, MA (Nov. 2, 2020) – Chris O’Donnell, a resident of Newburyport, Mass., was named the Director of Communication and Media at Chelmsford Public Schools, Superintendent Jay Lang announced on Nov. 2.
Mr. O’Donnell comes to Chelmsford with nearly 20 years experience in public relations and communications in both the public and private sectors. He will be responsible for the District’s public relations efforts and storytelling, website development and digital marketing initiatives.
Prior to accepting the position at CPS, Mr. O’Donnell spent five years as the Senior Copywriter at the Instabill Corporation, a Portsmouth, N.H.-based e-commerce payment solutions provider. Within his first year, his role expanded into web development, e-mail marketing and social media strategy in addition to handling the company’s content marketing, public relations and search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. During his time, Instabill ranked on Google’s Page One for more than 150 key words while the company was consistently consulted and featured in the top trade publications in the payments industry.
From 1999-2014, Mr. O’Donnell served as the Director of Media Relations for the Department of Athletics at UMass Lowell, where he oversaw all communications efforts, web development and statistics for the Department’s 18 women’s and men’s teams. During his tenure, UMass Lowell was featured in the likes of Sports Illustrated, The New York Times, NPR and ESPN as well as each of the Boston media outlets.
In 2012, Mr. O’Donnell received the Irving T. Marsh Award from the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Sports Information Directors Association for dedication and contributions to the industry. Over his 14 years, Mr. O’Donnell mentored 14 students and interns into careers college athletics media relations.
A native of Clifton Park, N.Y., Mr. O’Donnell lives in Newburyport, Mass., with his wife, Carrie, the Executive Director of the Newburyport Education Foundation; and their sons Christopher, a freshman at St. Lawrence University; and Brady, a junior at Newburyport H.S.
