Dr. Janette
McDonald has an interdisciplinary appreciation for academic and scholarly
endeavors. She has extensive training in end-of-life care with a particular
focus on bereavement and grief.
Ordained in 2011
by Roshi Joan Halifax as a Zen Hospice Chaplain, Dr. McDonald has specific
research interests in meditation and its impact on the mind. Her preferred mode
of inquiry is phenomenology, the study of the development of human
consciousness and self-awareness as a preface to or a part of philosophy. Her
current research interests include meditation’s impact on the development of
human compassion.
A frequent
presenter at international conferences, Dr. McDonald also studies and writes
about hope, forgiveness and spirituality. She recently completed an academic
sabbatical where she spent a significant portion of that time in deep retreat
studying the Lo Jong trainings with a Zen Monk. Also during her sabbatical she
was an invited presenter and delivered scholarly papers in Oxford, England and
Prague, in the Czech Republic on the phenomenon of madness in the 21st century
and implementing spirituality in university curricular design.