Producer, Writer, Executive Producer
Starting in 2017, Don took on the role of Executive Producer for Family Pictures USA, a new television series in development, the pilot for which was shot in Detroit. Don manages the development of the key production team; organizing key relationships with broadcasters, sponsors, local community organizations; managing fund-raising, research, casting, story development and writing for this unique new national TV show to be broadcast on PBS that is being developed out of the Digital Diaspora Family Reunion Roadshow.
Don is CEO and a lead architect of a new digital media venture DIGITAL DIASPORA FAMILY REUNION LLC which uses the intersection of history and visual literacy to bring people together, inter-generationally and cross-culturally, around shared values and experiences. Traveling around the country, the DDFR Roadshow is a unique and powerful experiential platform for leadership and team building; organizational diversity and inclusion programs; diversity and culture education programs; as well as community engagement and brand development programs. To date, DDFR has been to 65+ cities, held 70+ events, interviewed over 4,000 participants, gathered over 40,000 images and received over 70 million media impressions, including write ups in the New York Times, Ebony and TIME magazine.
Don has also been a key working partner on creative projects with award-winning filmmaker Thomas Allen Harris, President of DDFR. He is co-writer and producer of Through A Lens Darkly: Black Photographer and the Emergence of a People. He was co-writer of E Minha Cara/That’s My Face. He was also a producer for Twelve Disciples Of Nelson Mandela. He is the producer and co-writer of the short documentary film Marriage Equality: Byron Rushing and the Fight for Fairness. In his spare time, he writes afro-futurist fantasy/sci-fi/fiction novellas with an irreverent twist on the human condition.
Don has been nominated for Emmy and Peabody Awards and is the winner of an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Documentary Film (Through A Lens Darkly.)
He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations and Development Economics from Williams College and received his Masters in Business Administration in Strategic Management from the Peter F. Drucker Center, Claremont Graduate University.