Written by UNCG University News

When members of President Barack Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness came to North Carolina on June 13 looking for ways to spur job creation, Lisa McDonald, an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, was there. She participated in a 90-minute roundtable discussion at North Carolina Central University and shared a report on job vacancies in allied health professions with event moderator Melody Barnes, director of the White House’s Domestic Policy Council.

Allied health employment in the state increased 67 percent between 1999 and 2009, compared to a 3 percent increase in total employment, according to the report prepared by the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, the North Carolina Area Health Education Centers Program and the Council for Allied Health in North Carolina. Allied health includes all health professionals except physicians, nurses, chiropractors, dentists, optometrists, pharmacists and podiatrists.

Vice chair of the Council for Allied Health in North Carolina, McDonald received both her undergraduate and graduate degrees in speech-language pathology from UNCG and worked in Guilford County Schools for 10 years before returning to the university as a faculty member. She supervises graduate students in their first year of clinical practicum in speech-language pathology and is an active member of the North Carolina Speech, Hearing and Language Association. She served on the association’s board of directors 2006-09 and was president 2007-08.

The roundtable at NCCU was one of five similar gatherings in the region held in conjunction with Obama’s visit to Durham later in the day, which included a speech at Cree, the LED lighting manufacturer.