Professor Jim Donnellan served for 30 years as a Marine Corps officer, retiring as a Colonel in 2018. A 1988 graduate of Boston University, he was commissioned via Marine Option Naval ROTC scholarship. His expeditions and combat deployments include: Panama, Operation Desert Shield/Storm, Operation Iraqi Freedom (2x), Operation Enduring Freedom (2x). An infantry officer, he commanded 2d Battalion, 3d Marines on combat deployments to both Afghanistan and Iraq. His assignments as a Colonel included: Deputy Chief, J5 Strategy Division, U.S. Central Command Officer in Charge, II Marine Expeditionary Force Special Operations Training Group AC/S, C3, Regional Command Southwest, Afghanistan

AC/S G5 and subsequently, Deputy Commander, U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Europe and Africa, Stuttgart, Germany. His final assignment on active duty was Commanding Officer, U.S. Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center, Bridgeport, CA. He began teaching at the U.S. Naval War College in 2019, in the College of Maritime Operational Warfare and has taught in the Joint Military Operations (JMO) Department since 2022, where he teaches operational art and planning to mid-grade and senior U.S. and international military officers.