LYNNFIELD — He’s walked the halls of Washington D.C. and Boston City Hall but the town library is one of Andrew Kenneally’s favorite places.
“The Lynnfield Library is a treasure and I want to see it thrive and grow,” said Kenneally, who was appointed a library trustee this month during a joint Board of Selectmen and Board of Library Trustees meeting.
Trustee Chairman Robert Calamari said Kenneally joins the board with extensive experience in communications and politics.
“He brings a really great skill set that will be very complementary to the existing board, particularly in the areas of corporate communications and political campaigns and digital strategies, and a lot of things that will be tremendously helpful for us,” Calamari said.
Kenneally will serve out the remaining term of Janine Rodrigues-Saldanha and Calamari said he will pull papers for the April election.
A Lynnfield resident since 2016 and father of two young daughters, Kenneally is no stranger to the Lynnfield Library.
“I grew up in West Roxbury, but always heard about the library as my father would stop there to read investment periodicals on his way home from his job in Middleton,” Kenneally said. “My kids are huge fans of the library and my oldest daughter says the library is a ‘magical place,’ and I could not agree more. Almost every weekend we go to the library and get a stack of books.”
Kenneally has served as communications director at the non-profit Workers Compensation Research Institute in Cambridge since April, 2011.
Before that, he was a principal for Kenneally Communications in Boston from November 2009 through April 2011.
Kenneally was an at-large candidate for the Boston City Council in November, 2009, finishing fifth out of 15 candidates in the primary and sixth out of eight in the general election.
From December, 2004 through May, 2008, he served as Boston city councilor Michael Flaherty’s director of policy and communications. He was chief of staff for Boston city councilor Maura Hennigan from September 2003 through December 2004.
From September 2002 through August 2003 Kenneally was a political consultant for the National Democratic Institute in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Kenneally served as director of internet communications for U.S. Senator Harry Reid in Washington, D.C. from April, 2001 through April, 2002. Previously he worked as press and legislative assistant for U.S. Rep. Norman Sisiky from September 1998 through April, 2001 and also served as an intern for the late Joseph Moakley in the summer of 1998.
He graduated from Boston University in 2008 with a master’s degree in urban affairs and also holds degrees from Queen’s University in Belfast (comparative ethnic conflict) and a bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Working in Cambridge makes it difficult for Kenneally to spend time at the library during the week. But he makes up for it on weekends with his family, noting a few value-added benefits that only libraries can offer.
“We always carve out time on weekends to read, which I cherish,” he said. “The books we read inform us and entertain us and make us laugh and expand our horizons. I love Amazon, but cannot imagine what it would cost to purchase all these books we read every week, month and year. Not only does the library save us money, but it helps us to be green.”
Kenneally noted that in today’s fast-paced world of technology, cell phone calls and texts, the library invites patrons a chance “to relax quietly with a book or magazine and our thoughts.”
