Contact Us
Communications & Marketing Staff
Carrie O'Brion
carrieobrion@usf.edu
Director of Communications & Marketing
(727) 873-4452
Carrie drives strategic communications and marketing for the university, including
executive communications, brand and reputation management, crisis communications and
media relations. She previously served as the Senior Manager of Communications for
BluePearl Veterinary Partners, the country’s largest provider of specialty and emergency
veterinary medicine, with more than 70 hospitals in 21 states.
Carrie began her career as a journalist and spent more than seven years as a reporter
and an editor at the Tampa Bay Times. She has a bachelor’s degree in political science
from Colgate University and a master’s degree in communication from Johns Hopkins
University.
Lily Hoddinott
lhoddinott@usf.edu
Graphic Designer
(813) 394-0013
Lily has 14 years of graphic design and marketing experience. She has a broad skill set including corporate and lifestyle marketing in a wide variety of industries from real estate and property development to electronics.
Lily is a Florida native and loves traveling around the world. She holds a BFA in Fashion Design and Marketing and an MBA in Marketing.
Amy Harcar Holloway
harcar@usf.edu
Project Manager
(727) 873-4986
Amy is responsible for managing the project flow of the USF St. Petersburg campus and Communications & Marketing Team. With a Master’s degree in Communication from the University of South Florida, she has 15 years of experience in nonprofit administration, volunteer management and human resources.
Cliff McBride
cmcbride3@usf.edu
Multimedia Journalist
(727) 873-4468
Cliff is a visual story-teller, providing both photos and video of events and activities at the university for print, online and social media platforms.
Cliff has over 30 years of experience as a photographer with the Tampa Tribune and Newschannel 8.
Matthew Cimitile
mcimitile@usf.edu
Assistant Director
(727) 873-4840
Matthew reports and writes about key USF St. Petersburg campus news and events for
print, online and social media platforms. He serves as a primary point of contact
for general media requests as well as assists in crisis communication, helping to
respond to emergencies and media inquiries.
Prior to joining the USF St. Petersburg campus team, Matthew worked for the Appalachian
Mountains Joint Venture, where he developed content for a regional partnership focused
on bird conservation, raised awareness around key conservation programs and produced
messaging for Congressional briefings. He has a bachelor’s degree in history from
the University of Tampa and a master’s in environmental journalism from Michigan State
University.
Kate Holden
kholden1@usf.edu
Campus Webmaster
(727) 873-4040
Kate is responsible for managing the web presence for the USF St. Petersburg campus.
Kate possesses extensive experience with a variety of content management systems,
web development tools and web security applications.
Prior to joining the team, Kate worked for 14 years as the webmaster at Indiana University.
She has an M.S.Ed. in Instructional Systems Technology and a Master of Information
Science.
Alex Jonas
ajjonas@usf.edu
Graphic Design Specialist
(765) 404-1147
Alex has over 18 years of experiencing working in the Marketing industry. He has a BA in Visual Communication & Design from Purdue University with his work experience geared towards print, digital animation & web design. A large majority of his career experience comes from working in a fast paced casino environment that produced everything in-house. Alex was born and raised in Indiana, but his family recently relocated to Florida to escape the snow, gray skies and cold winter months. He enjoys spending time with his family, at the beach and on the ice playing hockey.
Sarah Sell Ward
sarahw14@usf.edu
Communications Specialist
(616) 970-5524
Sarah covers news and events for USF-St. Petersburg campus. She produces videos and writes stories for print, online and social media platforms.
Sarah spent 27 years as a television news reporter and anchor in Michigan before moving to Florida to be closer to her family in the Tampa Bay area. As a television news journalist, she won several awards for her work, including multiple Emmys for stories about social issues, business, education, and the environment.
Sarah has a bachelor's degree in communication from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.