McDonald is a local freelance journalist covering community news in Chicago. The granddaughter of Jamaican immigrants and a native of Chicago’s Southeast Side, she received her Bachelor’s degree of Journalism in Radio/TV Reporting and Anchoring from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 2018.
After graduating, she was an environmental health and wellness reporter and editor for Free Spirit Media’s The Real Chi newsroom in Chicago’s Homan Square neighborhood, a reporting intern for Block Club Chicago for more than a year and a Fall 2022 civic reporting fellow for City Bureau, where she and other fellows looked into Illinois’ temporary work industry.
She’s also reported for The TRiiBE and Austin Weekly News, was a freelance podcast producer for The Poetry Foundation, and is a member of the Chicago Headline Club’s 2023 FOIA Fest Boot Camp Cohort.
When she isn’t working for Borderless Magazine as a community reporting intern, she is continuing her work reporting on neighborhood news from across the city at Block Club Chicago as a freelance reporter.
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