Paul O'Donnell is an accomplished editor and innovator with four decades of experience guiding high-performing teams in newsrooms of varying sizes. He joined the journalism faculty at Texas A&M University in August 2024 after serving nine years as the business editor for the Dallas Morning News. Under his leadership, the news team earned multiple national, regional, and state awards for excellence in breaking news and enterprise reporting, including SABEW's prestigious Best-in-Business award. Prior to his role at the Dallas Morning News, he led the digital transition of the Dallas Business Journal as editor-in-chief and served as business editor and deputy metro editor for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. O'Donnell's business news team in Cleveland received the SABEW's Best-in-Business distinction and captured the National Press Foundation’s Thomas Stokes award for energy and environmental reporting. As an innovator, he has directed digital-first transitions in newsrooms and launched the Dallas Morning News' inaugural flagship iPad app, incorporating interactive storytelling. Throughout his career, he has successfully mentored and coached early-career journalists and reporters, many of whom have gone on to work for major national newsrooms such as the New York Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Washington Post, CNBC, and Politico.