Homewood Welcomes New Community Marketing Director

HOMEWOOD, IL — The Village of Homewood on Wednesday announced the hiring of Zach Thomas as the Community Marketing and Events Director effective August 23, 2016. Thomas is in charge of creating publications and outreach opportunities that target and engage residents and visitors as well as promoting economic development activities and conceptualizing new community events. Thomas is also responsible for redeveloping the website and creating a new social media plan.

“As a resident of Homewood this couldn’t be a more perfect fit,” Thomas said. “Homewood has so much to offer its residents and the broader Chicago area. This is an extraordinary opportunity to shape the future of the community in which I live.”

Thomas is an accomplished communications, marketing and digital strategist with extensive experience in tech, startups, higher education and public policy. He most recently served as a communications and marketing project coordinator for the University of Chicago Medicine, creating marketing collateral for its Comprehensive Cancer Center. Before that, he worked at the Illinois Applied Research Institute at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as a communications specialist, responsible for developing and acting-upon a comprehensive marketing program for the unit. His digital strategy skills were honed at the University of Nevada where he was a web communications specialist who developed marketing strategies for academic and administrative units. Additionally, he is an occasional editorial contributor to “Ten Speed Hero” a digital journal for cycling enthusiasts.

Thomas graduated with an M.S. in journalism from The E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University, Athens.

“Zach has all the skills we were seeking for this position,” said Village Manager Jim Marino. “We were looking for someone with a creative vision and the knowledge base to make that vision a reality. Zach has that attribute and much more. We are very pleased.”

Thomas replaced Rachael Jones who has worked as a consultant for the past year after being in the marketing position since 2006.