Carrie Welch, Launch Director
Carrie Welch is the Launch Director for the Center for the Creator Economy at the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. She directs launch strategy, events and media engagement on behalf of the ground-breaking academic center. Welch also serves as an Adjunct Professor and Technical Writer, co-authoring papers on disinformation, responsible AI and fake new detection, and gender bias in AI. With over 20 years of experience in communications, her research interests include public relations, AI, intersectional feminism and media representation. She previously served as an Adjunct Professor at Washington State University Vancouver.
Prior to Syracuse, Welch and her wife lived in Portland, Oregon where they built and ran a leading food PR agency, Little Green Pickle, and the Feast Portland food and drink festival for nine years. She began her career at the Food Network in New York City where she rose to Vice President of Public Relations. During her 10 year tenure, Welch worked with the network’s celebrity chefs and was responsible for the public relations campaigns for all series launches, network initiatives and philanthropic platforms.
Thomas O’Brien, Project Coordinator
Thomas O’Brien is a filmmaker and entrepreneur currently serving as Project Coordinator for the Center for the Creator Economy at Syracuse University, where he helps develop programming for student creators, builds university-wide partnerships, and leads the Center’s brand and content strategy as its first full-time employee. Previously, Thomas served as Chief Operating Officer of Project FreeFall, a media brand focused on elevating music artists and creators through visually driven storytelling, where he helped shape its business model across content campaigns, music videos, and merchandise under the brand’s “Take the Leap” ethos.
Prior to his institutional roles, Thomas served as founder and CEO of Ten Projects Open, which provides social media strategy, political campaign content, actor marketing, and personal brand development across platforms including Instagram and YouTube. His creative work—including viral short-form series and brand campaigns for artists, actors, clothing brands, and public figures—has reached tens of millions of views. Thomas brings a hands-on, creator-first perspective grounded in storytelling, platform strategy, and community-building as the creator economy enters its next phase. He graduated summa cum laude from Syracuse University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Film, Cinema, and Video Studies.
Meet the Research Team
Sofia Donolo
Sofia Donolo is a graduate student in the Public Diplomacy and Global Communications program at Syracuse University, a joint program at the Newhouse School of Public Communications and the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. She is currently serving as a Research Assistant on the CCE research team focused on analyzing industry and academic perspectives on the evolving creator economy.
Sofia has a background in broadcast journalism with a strong foundation in storytelling and messaging. Before returning to Syracuse, she spent four years at CNN, most recently as an Associate Editorial Producer for CNN’s Erin Burnett OutFront. It was through producing that Sofia discovered a deep passion for creativity in storytelling. She holds a B.A. in International Relations from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School, which she earned in 2021. As an undergraduate, she focused regionally on Latin America and the Caribbean, and topically on international law and organizations.
Maggie DiPatri
Maggie DiPatri is a Research Assistant at the Center for the Creator Economy at Syracuse University. She collaborates with the research team to bridge academic and theoretical perspectives with industry insights, developing research that confronts the big questions around the creator economy and seeks to demystify them. A current Master’s student in the Media Studies program, Maggie’s research interests center on social influence of emerging media technologies and digital cultures, such as the effects of deinfluencing videos and political influencers.
Before returning to school, Maggie worked at GBH—Boston’s PBS and NPR station—as an Intern and Digital Production Assistant on Antiques Roadshow and then full-time for three years as an Account Executive in the station’s National Audience Development & Station Services department. In that role, she collaborated with national public media series such as FRONTLINE, Work It Out Wombats, and Lidia’s Kitchen to grow their audiences, maximize digital impact, and equip the hundreds of public media stations across the U.S. with the necessary resources to promote and air GBH programming, helping fulfill public media’s mission of providing accessible, educational media to all. Maggie graduated summa cum laude from Boston College with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication and a minor in Film Studies.