Comms Chief Departs USOPC

(ATR) After a little more than six months on the job Luella Chavez D’Angelo is out as marketing and communications director for the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee.

A staff member in the department says Chavez D’Angelo stepped down from her post and could furnish no other details.

She started September 30, 2019.

Chavez D’Angelo was to lead "USOPC marketing and communications initiatives, including setting and stewarding the overall strategic direction for the organization and its properties," said the news release announcing her appointment.

"I am thrilled to have Luella join our organization in this new role," said USOPC CEO Sarah Hirshland in the news release, saluting "her incredible track record in marketing and communications". None of her experience however was related to the USOPC or sport.

During her brief tenure Chavez D'Angelo did not make much of a mark outside the USOPC headquarters. She never conducted a press conference in her role as communications chief. Chavez D'Angelo also was supposed to lead government relations for the USOPC. In March requests from the USOPC to Congress for $200 million in emergency assistance to national governing bodies for U.S. Olympic sports was rejected.

Prior to the USOPC Chavez D’Angelo was the vice president of marketing and communications for Centura Health, a Colorado health services firm. She was a Vice Chancellor for the University of Colorado South Denver and had a stint as chief global communications officer for Western Union.

She was hired after the departure in early 2019 of Patrick Sandusky, who held the post for about 10 years. He resigned to become a vice president at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

There is no word yet on the search for a new candidate to take on the marketing and communications position in Colorado Springs.

Reported by Ed Hula.