2026 Commencement Speaker
Donell Morgan, MBA
Executive Director, Elevate Oregon | Community Leader | Mentor | Coach
Donell Morgan’s journey as a nonprofit executive and community leader is rooted in a lifelong commitment to mentorship, education, and creating opportunities for young people to realize their potential. His journey also includes a meaningful connection to Willamette University, where he earned his MBA through the MBA for Professionals program in 2021.
Born in New Orleans and raised in Tacoma, Washington, Donell learned early the transformative power of education, relationships, and perseverance. His passion for basketball took him from high school competition to Idaho State University, where he was part of the last team to win the Big Sky Conference Tournament, and ultimately to playing basketball professionally around the world. Those experiences exposed him to diverse communities and cultures and reinforced a lesson that would become central to his life’s work: meaningful relationships can transcend differences and change the trajectory of a person’s life.
Following his basketball career, Donell began working directly with young people at Echo Glen Children’s Center, a juvenile rehabilitation facility in Washington State. There, he gained firsthand insight into the circumstances that often shape the lives of young people before they enter the juvenile justice system. The experience strengthened his conviction that lasting change requires reaching young people and families before they reach a crisis point.
Donell subsequently became a college basketball coach at Umpqua Community College, where he became the first African American head basketball coach in Douglas County. For more than a decade, he used coaching as a platform for mentorship, encouraging students and athletes to believe in themselves, pursue their education, and envision possibilities beyond their immediate circumstances.
His commitment to youth development eventually led him into the nonprofit sector, where he helped establish two Boys & Girls Clubs in his hometown of Tacoma. Today, Donell serves as Executive Director of Elevate Oregon, a youth-serving nonprofit dedicated to building relationships and creating opportunities that help young people thrive. Under his leadership, Elevate has expanded its reach and strengthened its focus on mentorship, academic achievement, leadership development, and community connection.
Donell earned his MBA from Willamette University’s MBA for Professionals program in 2021, an experience that strengthened his leadership, strategic thinking, and commitment to lifelong learning. Returning to Willamette as a commencement speaker is particularly meaningful because he now has the opportunity to speak to graduates who are standing at the same threshold he crossed just a few years ago.
An energetic and engaging speaker, Donell has dedicated his career to developing people and strengthening communities. He has served on the Oregon Department of Education’s African American/Black Student Success Advisory Committee and continues to invest his time in education, youth development, and community leadership. He has also coached Parkrose High School’s varsity basketball team for the past seven years, continuing a lifelong commitment to using the power of mentorship to help young people discover their potential.
A 2023 inductee into the Idaho State University Hall of Fame, Donell remains deeply connected to the game that shaped so much of his life. Whether through coaching, nonprofit leadership, or mentoring the next generation, he believes leadership is ultimately about what we do with the opportunities we have been given—and how we use those opportunities to create opportunities for others.
His guiding philosophy is simple: give back to the community all that was given to you—and then give a little more.