Dan Donoway
SPTE Adjunct Faculty

Dan Donoway, Director of Training and Development, Event Marketing and Sales for Feld Entertainment®, is taking on a new role: adjunct professor. Donoway and Feld Entertainment® are teaming up with the Department of Sport and Entertainment Management to teach SPTE 404: Live Event Promotion. From a business perspective, the program presents an opportunity for Feld Entertainment®, to tap into the strong base of students and actively recruit. USC was chosen because of the openness of the University to his company’s involvement and its entertainment management program is the best development program of its kind in the country, which creates a lot of opportunity for Feld Entertainment® as a company. Donoway’s teaching style is intentional, but laid back and he is open to students setting the direction for the lecture.

In the past, Donoway had a mentor who was one of the most passionate people with whom he had the opportunity to work. From a personal perspective this mentor encouraged him to “pay it forward” and teaching is an unbelievably rewarding opportunity to do so. Currently, he is inspired by younger people and the energy they bring when pursuing the opportunity to join the entertainment business

Donoway has a B.S. in Business Administration and a Master of Science in Business Administration from Salisbury University. Donoway says that a high point in his life is having found success in an industry he loves with a company he is passionate about. From a career standpoint a major highlight was putting on an old-fashioned circus parade in New Haven, CT, where he lived at the time, and being able to utilize resources that were actually owned at one time by the Ringling brothers, P. T. Barnum and James Bailey in the parade. There are also many other rewarding opportunities involved when working for the circus.

“When you work in the circus world there is a tendency for the unusual to become the norm – your perspective becomes skewed, but the best moment presents itself whenever you get to see Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey® through the eyes of a child,” says Donoway.

As for his personal life, Donoway says “I’m very lucky to have an immediate and extended family who love what I do, support me and allow me to make the most of my career”.

He currently resides in Washington, D.C. and flies to Columbia every week to teach. His hobbies include photography, oil painting, and being an amateur sommelier. His favorite restaurant in Columbia is Ristorante Divino and he hopes to make it to Williams Brice for a football game. Donoway loves to travel and is excited to visit the United Kingdom this semester. He has visited a lot of great cities and says it is good to be excited about every place you go, because you might just be surprised.

“The Gamecock community has been unbelievably welcoming and excited about my being here. Having the opportunity to appreciate South Carolina hospitality is a pretty good thing,” says Donoway.