Donovan Scribes | Strategic Communications Advisor

Donovanscribes@gmail.com, Speaks: English

Donovan Scribes (fka Donovan M. Smith) is an communications consultant, award-winning writer, artist and speaker based in Portland. He has written for a number of publications including The Oregonian, Skanner and iHeartRadio where he served as a co-writer on the 10-part top 100 iTunes podcast “Uprising: a Guide from Portland” detailing the history behind the 100+ days of protest in Portland in 2020. His “Gentrification is WEIRD!” platform has been used to steer important dialogue about Black history and futures in Oregon, policing, and reimagining George Park in St Johns and eventually secured $4 million in private-public funding for its development. He has served on a number of boards and committees including the Multnomah County Charter Review Committee (2021-2022), charged with revising the county’s local constitution, and as 2nd Vice President of the Portland NAACP (2021-2022) where he led work on housing, police and environmental policies and programs. 

As a communications professional he has helped lead strategy that helped reduce Oregon's first-in-the-nation rent cap policy and led efforts to shape the narrative around the state's pioneering drug decriminalization law Measure 110.

Scribes has been featured in USA Today, The Nation, The FADER, FYI Network and more. 

A fourth generation Portlander, Scribes is committed to civic engagement, uplifting stories from the margins, and creatively shaping futures. 

A graduate of Oregon Episcopal School, he also attended the HBCU Fisk University in Nashville, TN.