Mia MacDonald has worked as a consultant for United Nations agencies, foundations, and international non-profit organizations, including the UN Population Fund, UNICEF, the Ford Foundation, the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth, and the Ms. Foundation for Women, among others. She is also a senior fellow of the Washington, D.C.-based Worldwatch Institute whose research focuses on gender and population, biodiversity conservation, and reproductive health and rights. During the 2003-2004 academic year, she served as adjunct lecturer and co-director of the human rights concentration at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. She holds a master's degree in public policy with a concentration in international development from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and has a strong interest in the impacts on animals, the environment, people's livelihoods, and public health of the globalization of factory farming.