Mia McDonald ’15
Late at night while most of Raleigh sleeps, the Raymond L. Champ Center for Emergency Medicine at WakeMed Hospital bustles with activity. The exam rooms are full of patients who are sick, weak, and in pain. Their families crowd into the waiting area hoping for good news. Staff move from room to room – observing, listening, running tests, and reassuring worries.
“You never know what’s going to roll in the door or how the night is going to go,” says Physician Assistant Mia McDonald ‘15. “I treat patients from all walks of life and it’s often the worst day of their lives. I’m here to guide my patients through that experience and hopefully make it easier.”
McDonald wasn’t always so clear about her calling. She graduated from Marshall University in 2007 with a degree in journalism. Over the next decade, she made her home in Greensboro working in public relations and later at Apple, Inc., helping customers with early models of the iPhone and iPad. They praised her as a great communicator, listener, and problem-solver.
I treat patients from all walks of life and it’s often the worst day of their lives. I’m here to guide my patients through that experience and hopefully make it easier.
— Mia McDonald ’15, physician assistant at WakeMed Hospital in Raleigh, N.C.
“One of the things I loved about working for Apple was breaking down complicated and intangible concepts and explaining how technology could be useful in customers’ everyday lives,” McDonald says. It made her want to help others in a more profound way, which led her to contemplate a career in health care.
Knowing this dramatic career change would require a strong science background, she enrolled at UNCG as a post-baccalaureate (post-bacc) biology major to complete the credits she needed for physician assistant (PA) school applications.
Even as a nontraditional student, McDonald took full advantage of extracurriculars that UNCG offered. She participated in the Bronze, Silver, and Gold Leadership program through UNCG’s Office of Leadership and Civic Engagement, served as a teaching assistant, worked in a psychology research lab, and took a job as a medical scribe at Moses Cone Hospital’s emergency department, where she shadowed physician assistants.
“I found the University to be welcoming and I loved being actively involved in campus life,” McDonald says. “My experience at UNCG made me more well-rounded. The opportunities here really set me apart when I applied to PA school.”
McDonald earned her master’s in the PA program at Radford University Carilion (formerly Jefferson College of Health Sciences) before returning to Greensboro for her first PA position at Moses Cone Hospital, thanks to connections made during her time at UNCG.
Today, McDonald is a physician assistant at WakeMed Health System and loves the pace of the emergency department, where she has exclusively worked night shifts for the past five years.
“I may walk into one room and treat somebody who’s actively having a heart attack, then walk in the next room and pull a foreign body out of someone’s eye, and then go two doors down to diagnose a woman with pain in her second trimester of pregnancy.”
No matter the age or condition of her patient, McDonald draws on her listening skills and supportive nature. Every interaction requires leadership, critical thinking, and other skills that were reinforced by UNCG.
“We’re lucky to have the pre-medical advising program we have,” McDonald says. “UNCG helped me build my transcript and resume but also gave me the confidence to chase my dream.”
Rooted in Science,
Thriving in Service
Learn more about how UNCG’s culture of access opens doors for medical careers.