Email: donald.cherry@laok.org

I attended California State University, Long Beach, where I completed my undergraduate studies, earning a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with an emphasis in Public Law. Then, I attended a year of law school at University of Tulsa College of Law before withdrawing and continuing my graduate-level education at Oklahoma State University, Tulsa, where I earned a Master of Science in Curriculum and Instruction, while concurrently teaching Special Education and Honors-level classes in Social Studies and Mathematics at Tulsa High School for Science and Technology, located in North Tulsa, home to a large percentage of Tulsa's African-American community. For me, it was an opportunity to help school-aged children in the best way I knew how — by providing quality education and I wanted them to be able to choose what it is they wanted to do in the future.

Before joining LASO’s PRDP, in addition to spending 9 years managing hotels in and around the Tulsa Metropolitan and surrounding area, I worked as a Property Manager for the Mental Health Association of Oklahoma, providing access to affordable housing to families and individuals experiencing homelessness and people living with a disability.

I began my career as the Data Manager for LASO’s PRDP in February 2021, assisting in the start-up of the program by creating the CMS database that stores all of the program’s juvenile deprived action parent-client’s case and file data point information.

Having a servant’s heart, my passion in life is helping others and my work, coupled with the high quality legal and social wraparound services of the PRDP Interdisciplinary Team, gives me an opportunity to do just that.

In addition to my LASO-PRDP professional responsibilities, I serve on LASO’s DEI Council including having served as the Secretary of LASO’s DEI Leadership Council; am a Co-Founder and the President of the Oklahoma HIV Support Group; serve as a Board of Directors member, a NOURISH-OK Participant Advisory Committee Volunteer Community Advisor, and Client Advisory Board member at Tulsa CARES, serve as a UCO-MPA Advisory Board member at the University of Central Oklahoma (UCO-MPA), and serve as a Staff Editor at Love Wins Publishing.

I live on a horse ranch in Sand Springs, where we have 3 horses, 3 dogs, and 1 cat, as well as a family of geese.