Don Marinelli

Edutainment Wizard and Creative Conjurer

Imaginary College Award

Donald Marinelli retired from Carnegie Mellon University in April 2012, concluding 31 years of service to the university in a variety of capacities. Together with the late computer science professor Randy Pausch (The Last Lecture), Dr. Marinelli co-founded the world-renowned Carnegie Mellon Entertainment Technology Center (ETC).  Dr. Marinelli was also a tenured Professor of Drama and Arts Management at Carnegie Mellon University.

Dr. Marinelli was integral in creation of the Carnegie Mellon University’s Master of Arts Management program, the Master of Fine Arts in Acting degree program with the Moscow Art Theatre School in Russia, and the Master of Entertainment Technology degree program within the ETC.

Dr. Marinelli is currently Executive Vice-President of Vissman Management, a merger, acquisition, and venture capital firm based in Pittsburgh. He is also an adjunct professor at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh and the School of Arts, Media and Engineering at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona.

A native of Brooklyn, New York, Professor Marinelli completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Tampa. He received a M.A. in Clinical Psychology, specializing in Existential-Phenomenological Psychology from Duquesne University. Professor Marinelli subsequently attended the University of Pittsburgh where he received his Ph.D. in theatre history, literature and criticism in 1987 with a dissertation on the early life and career of the Italian Futurist F.T. Marinetti.

His book about co-founding the ETC with the late computer science professor Randy Pausch, author of the critically acclaimed, The Last Lecture, was published in the spring of 2010 by Sterling Innovation, a division of Barnes & Noble. Titled The Comet and the Tornado, the book recounts the six years Don and Randy shared an office creating the center that has become recognized internationally as Carnegie Mellon’s “Dream Fulfillment Factory.” It was Barnes & Noble’s “Book of the Month” in April 2010.