She received her Ph.D. in Theoretical Chemistry in 2009 from the Georgia Institute of Technology. She was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy from 2009-2011 and has been at Cal Poly since Fall 2011. In gradate school, Dr. McDonald was very active with the Georgia local ACS section, helping organize activities for the Women’s Chemist Committee and serving as the liaison between the chemistry Graduate Student Forum at Georgia Tech and the local section.