Dr. McDonald received her B.S. in biology at Florida State University and her Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology from Vanderbilt University. She performed postdoctoral training at the National Institutes of Health under the mentorship of Dr. John Patton, where she learned detailed aspects of rotavirus biology. Dr. McDonald now leads her own research team and is focused on discovering how rotavirus replicates and reassorts is segmented RNA genome.