Donna Dukes, Founder and Executive Director of Maranathan Academy, was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Miles College, where she graduated valedictorian with summa cum laude honors in 1991, a graduate certificate in nonprofit management from Harvard University, and a Master of Liberal Arts in Management from Harvard University.

Donna founded Maranathan Academy, a 501(c)(3) non-profit alternative school and learning center, on September 3, 1991, to educate critically at-risk youth and adult students. It’s goal? To break intergenerational, cyclical dependency on government assistance, in the critically at-risk student populace. Over the last thirty-four years, Maranathan Academy has graduated nearly 400 students and impacted over 2,000 lives.

Donna is a Telly Award winning filmmaker (STAND! Untold Stories from the Civil Rights Movement), a TEDx Speaker, a nationally recognized author (American Legacy Book Awards Finalist and Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist for This Way to Hope: The Challenges, Hard Truths and Triumphs of Working with Critically At-Risk Students), and a motivational speaker.

In recognition of the tremendous impact of her work at Maranathan Academy, Donna was inducted into the Martin Luther King, Jr. International College of Ministers and Laity at Morehouse College; named a Woman to Watch by the Birmingham Business Journal; named a Regional Community Leader by national jeweler Kendra Scott; received the Brother Bryan Prayer Point Award from the Women’s Committee of 100 for Birmingham; and was presented with an Outstanding Community Contributor award by the Alabama Chapter of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE).

Donna is a member of Sixth Avenue Baptist Church, Birmingham East Kiwanis Club, the Women’s Committee of 100 for Birmingham and serves on the Board of Directors of the Women’s Committee of 100 for Birmingham. She works tirelessly to bring the plight of critically at-risk students to the attention of the public and private sectors, and to ensure that her students, embrace academic opportunities, discard victim mentalities, practice inclusion, accept personal responsibility for their actions and thereby, become productive, contributing members of society.