Known as a community activist since the '80s, O'Connell has served on the national board of governors for the Human Rights Campaign and volunteered at the Boston AIDS Action Committee and the Fenway Community Health Center. She has also had stints in the music business, serving as New England marketing manager for A&M Records and Geffen Records. O'Connell began her career as music director at KISS-108 (WXKS-FM), and later as program director and marketing director at WBOS. And Boston Magazine recognized her as a Gay Power Player in its 2006 Power issue. She's been described as 'smart and sassy' and an 'objective interviewer.' For 12 years, starting in 1998, O'Connell was the co-host of One In Ten, the award-winning weekly radio talk show focusing on issues relating to the gay and lesbian community heard in New England on the WFNX Radio Network.īoston Spirit Magazine recognized O'Connell as a Top New England LGBT Power Player in its 2015 issue. She appears regularly as a contributor on WGBH's Boston Public Radio, and WGBH's Under the Radar with Callie Crossley.Ī self-described 'practical progressive,' O'Connell is a Boston-area native. O'Connell is also the co-publisher of Bay Windows, New England's largest newspaper serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community and The South End News, a Boston weekly, and a co-owner of The EDGE Media Network, a national network of LGBT news web portals.
