Chris Donnelly
Chris specializes in earned media, media relations, and message development. He works across numerous industries and sectors, focusing on health care, cannabis, energy and environmental issues, organized labor, transportation, and utilities.
As general manager of Kivvit’s New Jersey office, Chris oversees the team’s operations and business development efforts. He brings extensive legislative experience to Kivvit, having spent several years at the highest levels of state government. He played an integral role in several Kivvit campaigns, such as the 2020 New Jersey cannabis legalization effort and the 2016 effort to replenish and constitutionally dedicate funding for the New Jersey Transportation Trust Fund. Chris was named to the ROI-NJ 2023 Influencers Power List and has appeared multiple times on InsiderNJ’s Cannabis Power List.
Prior to joining Kivvit, Chris was the press secretary and spokesperson for New Jersey Senate President Steve Sweeney. He took a brief leave of absence to be the communications director for the New Jersey United for Marriage campaign, an effort to establish marriage equality in New Jersey. Before that, he served as a deputy press secretary for then-Governor Jon Corzine and was the communications director for the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, and before that he worked in the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs for Governors Jim McGreevey and Richard Codey.
Chris lives in Mercer County, New Jersey with his wife and two children.
Education
- B.A. in political science, College of New Jersey; M.A. in political science, Rutgers University
Publications
- Author of four books on baseball: Road to Nowhere: The Early 1990s Collapse and Rebuild of New York City Baseball; Doc, Donnie, the Kid, and Billy Brawl: How the 1985 Mets and Yankees Fought for New York’s Baseball Soul; How the Yankees Explain New York; and Baseball’s Greatest Series: Yankees, Mariners and the 1995 Matchup That Changed History
Volunteer Work
- Former chair of Garden State Equality’s Action Fund Executive Committee