Colonel Dono, a native of Huntington, NY, earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from Virginia Tech and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in May 1999.
In December 2003, Colonel Dono was qualified as an Electronics Counter Measures Officer for the EA-6B Prowler. From January 2003 to June 2006, Colonel Dono deployed with VMAQ-1 to Operation Iraqi Freedom (2003, 2005) and WESTPAC (2004), where he held the billets of Classified Material Control Custodian, Assistant Electronics Warfare Officer, and Logistics Officer.
In 2005, Colonel Dono was designated a Weapons and Tactics Instructor (WTI). In 2006, he attended Expeditionary Warfare School and then instructor at Officer Candidate School in 2007. Colonel Dono reported to VMAQ-4 deploying to Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2008 and 2009, holding the positions of Logistics Officer, Administrations Officer, Assistant Operation Officer, and Weapons and Tactics Instructor. In 2005 and 2008, Colonel Dono acted as the Liaison Officer for Airborne Electronic Warfare and CREW at Multi-National Corps Iraq, Electronic Warfare Coordination Cell.
From June 2010 to June 2012, Colonel Dono attended the Naval Postgraduate School, earning a Master of Science degree in Operations Research. Colonel Dono was a fellow at SPAWAR San Diego, where he earned a distinguished thesis award and was nominated for the MORS/Tisdale award for Operations Research. Colonel Dono’s work, “Optimized Transit Planning and Landing of Aerial Robotic Swarms,” was published in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) International Conference on Robotics and Automation in 2013.
From June 2012 to August 2015, Colonel Dono served as the DARPA Transition Officer for the Futures Directorate. He was also the subject matter expert in Robotics and Automation, and Electronic Warfare (EW). In January 2015, Colonel Dono was designated an acquisition professional and initiated into the Defense Acquisitions Corps.
From August 2015 to June 2017, Colonel Dono served as the Team Lead for Signals Intelligence/EW and the Terrestrial/Human Intelligence portfolios for the Marine Corps. In June 2017, Colonel Dono assumed leadership of the EW Systems Team, where he maintained all existing Marine Corps CREW equipment while developing and procuring the next generation of Multi-Function Ground Electronic Warfare Equipment.
In 2019, Colonel Dono was a Secretary of Defense Fellow at the Honeywell Aerospace Corporation as part of his Top Level School. From 2019 to 2022, Colonel Dono served as the Program Manager Communications Systems, where he led the Marine Corps terrestrial communications portfolio at over $800M annually.
In 2022, Colonel Dono assumed command of Program Manager Marine Corps Cyber Operations, where he was stationed at Fort Meade, MD in direct support of Marine Forces Cyber Command. In this role, he led a small group of highly technical acquisition professionals who were responsive to the needs of the cyber operating forces.
In February 2024, Colonel Dono combined the Marine Corps Intelligence and Cyberspace portfolios into Program Manager Intel and Cyber Operations. In March 2025, Col Dono assumed the role of Chief of Staff for Marine Corps Systems Command.
Colonel Dono’s personal decorations include sixteen Air Medals, Air Medal with combat distinguishing device (Combat V), Meritorious Service Medal x3, Navy Marine Corps Commendation Medal, and an Army Achievement Medal.