John R. O’Donnell

John O’Donnell is the senior partner in MMO Partners, Washington, DC based lobbying firm. Prior to forming MMO Partners, he was a principal with the National Center for Municipal Development (NCMD), a public affairs and local government advocacy group, organized originally by the US. Conference of Mayors and the National League of Cities. John was a NCMD principal for sixteen years and developed one of the larger local government practices within the group before joining Murray, Montgomery and O’Donnell in 1996.

John’s primary clients are local governments and public agencies that include cities, counties, water and electric utilities, metropolitan planning organizations, a west coast port and a flood control district.

He has extensive experience working with local governments on human services, aviation, economic development, border, freight movement, public safety, water resources, surface transportation, and workforce issues. He works closely with officials with the Departments of Homeland Security, Commerce, Energy, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Labor, Transportation, Corp of Engineers, Environmental Protection Agency, Bureau of Reclamation, Navy, and Air Force.

John worked for New Hampshire Governor Walter Peterson managing the Statewide VISTA program before going to the West Coast to manage training and project programming for the ACTION Agency, Region X, in Seattle, which covered Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Alaska. He moved from the Action Agency to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to direct the intergovernmental affairs for the Office of Coastal Zone Management (OCZM) and while with OCZM served on special assignment to the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development to assist with the reauthorization of the National Economic Development Act.

As part of his work with local governments the past three years, John has worked with the Yale School of Management since early 2014 to create the Yale Mayors College within the Graduate School’s Chief Executive Leadership Institute. The purpose of the Mayors College is to bring together mayors from medium and large cities to discuss key urban and national issues. The College also includes participation in a one day session with business and national political leaders to discuss the impact of national and international events on business and cities economies.

John was appointed in the summer of 2016 to serve on the Advisory Board of the University of Washington’s Evans School of Public Policy and Governance. He is a 1978 graduate.

John can be reached at [email protected].