Dr. O'Donnell, a native Arkansan and University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) graduate, is chairman of the Department of Urology in the UAMS College of Medicine.

Dr. O'Donnell is a 1972 graduate of UAMS and former chief of urology at the John L. McClellan Memorial Veterans Hospital
at UAMS.

Dr. O'Donnell is a specialist in female incontinence and is
the editor of two books. Dr. O'Donnell also has had several
articles and book chapters published on incontinence in women, voiding dysfunction in people of all ages and other research topics. He has led numerous National Institute on Aging (NIA) and VA Merit Review research efforts, and has served as a member of study sections for the NIA, National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive Diseases and Kidney Diseases, and the VA Research and Development Program.

Dr. O'Donnell, a Benton County native, completed his internship and residencies in general surgery and urology at UAMS and a fellowship in female urology and urodynamics at the University of California Los Angeles Center for Health Sciences. After returning to Arkansas to lead urology at the VA, he became a UAMS associate professor and director of the Arkansas Center for Incontinence in 1984. He was promoted to professor and director of urological research in the Department of Urology at UAMS in 1989.

Dr. O'Donnell was appointed professor of surgery and director of the Cincinnati Continence Center, Cincinnati Potency Center and the Cincinnati Geriatric Urology Center at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center in 1992. He’s also served as chief of surgery at the VA Medical Center in Fayetteville and director of the Eastern Oklahoma Continence Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Most recently, Dr. O'Donnell was a professor of urology at Southern Illinois University (SIU) School of Medicine and director of the SIU Incontinence Center.