Bobby Donaldson is a professor of History and African American Studies at the University of South Carolina where he serves on the strategic planning, development, and curriculum committees. He received a degree in History and Afro-American Studies at Wesleyan and a Masters and Ph.D. in American History from Emory University. He was awarded a Thurgood Marshall Fellowship at Dartmouth College and the Huggins-Quarles Prize from the Organization of American Historians. Recently, he completed a stint as a visiting professor at Dartmouth. He works as a consultant for the South Carolina Department of Education and conducts training workshops for public school teachers interested in developing multi-cultural curriculums.

He currently works as a mentor for the Robert E. McNair Program-a federal initiative designed to encourage students of color and first generation college students to pursue advanced graduate degrees.

At Wesleyan he worked as a teaching assistant, as a volunteer at the Long River Village tutorial program and the Middletown Head Start, and as a counselor and teacher with the Upward Bound Program at Columbia University.

He served as president of the Senior Class of 1993, the co-chair of UJAMAA, a member of the Student Institutional Priority Affairs Committee, a senior interviewer in the Office of Admissions, and a DJ at WESU. He was the recipient of a Mellon Minority Fellowship, the Philip Brown Scholarship, and the Victor Butterfield Prize.

His civic and professional involvement includes the NAACP, the National Urban League, Habitat for Humanity, and the Organization of American Historians. Since graduation, he has been involved with the Black Alumni Council and the Mellon Minority Fellows Program, conducted college fairs on behalf of the Office of Admissions, and served as co-chair of his 5th year reunion in 1998.