McDonald was born in Milwaukee, Wisc., where she served as a class officer and organized events on the Youth Council before graduating from Nicolet High School in 1972.
She graduated with a degree in occupational therapy from the University of Wisconsin and then moved to Dayton where she worked in a pediatric program at the University of Dayton.
She also met her husband, Dave McDonald, after moving to the area.
“I moved to Dayton on a Sunday and met Dave on Tuesday,” said McDonald, whose husband currently works as a financial consultant for Merrill Lynch. “He worked as a psychologist for a sister agency for preschools.”
McDonald worked at UD for two years and then moved to St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, where she worked as an occupational therapist for 10 years. She then accepted a position with the Montgomery County Special Education Center, and after five years began working for the Centerville City School District, in order to work her schedule around her three children who include: Tom McDonald, a 2002 Centerville High School graduate, who earned a degree in communications at Ohio State University and has taught English in Equador, Korea and Spain; Katie McDonald Johnson, a 2003 CHS graduate who earned a degree in mathematics at UD and lives in Centerville with her husband, and high school sweetheart, Daniel Johnson; and Tyler McDonald, a 2006 CHS graduate, who went on to earn a degree at OSU and currently is working as a recruiter for Tech Systems in Miami Twp., where he lives.
McDonald was very active in the PTO when her children were in school and served as president of the Centerville Hockey Association. She is treasurer of the Ohio Occupational Therapy Association Inc., (OOTA) Dayton District and has been a member of the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) for 30 years.
McDonald and Raghavan’s program consists of four sections that address necessary skills such as dressing, grooming, toilet training and eating.
By breaking down the tasks into individual steps with visuals to match, students are able to see and practice each step. Prerequisite hand skills for each section are outlined in a separate section with suggested exercises.
“It’s really fun, because after we started writing the program, we rewrote it all in rhyme,” said McDonald, whose co-author is active in the India Club along with her husband, Ranga.
“Bhanu had just gone to a conference where she learned that it’s easier to learn with rhyme, so we have rhyming verses for the children to learn.”
McDonald and Raghavan piloted the program in the Centerville City School District for two years before releasing it to the public.
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