Michael Joseph Mcdonald Email & Phone Number

South Bend, Indiana, United States

After 15 years of dedicated disability advocacy, I took a leap and founded Everable, a non-profit production company focused on ending disability stigma through the power of film. From nurturing the initial idea to securing funding, I’ve led the mission to amplify underrepresented voices and transform perceptions of disability worldwide.

Montreal, Qc, Canada

• Oversaw National Communications Strategy which assisted in generating $72 million annually from organizations’s 30 Canadian nonprofits, driving 1,000 job applications annually, and reaching 1 million Canadians quarterly through PSA campaigns. • Led department-wide restructuring and supervised three main communications portfolios: public engagement, internal engagement, and philanthropy. • Created out-of-the-box initiatives for our federation's 1,400 employees to share their sense of fun, their sense of meaning, and their boundless creativity with the larger organization.

Montreal, Quebec, Canada

• Qualified for the 94th Academy AwardsIf you look at Down syndrome representation in film, you’ll see a lot of deficit-thinking—a lot of pity or fear. Since the experiences of people with Down syndrome are rarely seen in cinema, they don’t have many opportunities to correct the misperceptions that end up shaping the public discussion about their bodies. With Freebird, we hoped to help change that. The film was co-led by filmmaker Nicholas Herd (who himself has Down syndrome). It's the coming-of-age story of Jon, a boy with Down Syndrome who learns to navigate the world with a loving mother, an absent father, a classroom bully, and a life-long crush. Ultimately, Freebird poses the question: "Why does the world assume a disabled life is not profoundly beautiful?"

Berkeley, California, Usa

• Led to the creation of Georgia Senate Bill 208. • Screened in the White House to President Biden and Vice President Harris.I've always been curious about why certain bodies are disqualified from human community. This curiosity has been one of the driving forces behind my artistic and intellectual undertakings. It's led me to leprosy colonies in Guayaquil, to refugee camps in Jaffna, to drug dens in Nairobi, and (in this documentary titled 6,000 Waiting) to a stack of papers in downtown Atlanta. *Winner of the Best Short Documentary at Montreal Independent Film Festival.

Paris, Île-De-France, France

The As I Am doc-series is a collection of "globe-trotting short films" whose unifying purpose is to revolutionize social views through profiling the ordinary lives of persons with disabilities. Having received a generous grant from the Templeton Foundation, we filmed in Argentina, Egypt, Japan, Northern Ireland, Côte d'Ivoire, India, Poland, Ukraine, Kenya, Australia, Italy, and Honduras. The series plumbs the great questions of human existence: age and death, love and politics, baby photos and war. The series garnered over 1.5 million views and was translated into 11 languages. Three episodes were screened in the United Nations Headquarters in honor of the International Day for Persons with Disabilities.

Colombo, Western, Sri Lanka

As a member of the executive team for Global Unites, I helped scale up a national-level peace movement to an international federated structure with member movements in multiple countries.

Nyahururu, Kenya

As a ghostwriter, I authored 4 creative non-fiction books on issues of social justice with <25,000 copies sold in Kenya. The topics varied from educational reform to HIV/Aids to addiction recovery.

Trosly-Breuil France

I supported adults with profound intellectual disabilities on matters of personal care: bathing, toileting, dressing, eating, medication.

Master'S Degree, Peace Studies And Conflict Resolution, Gpa 3.8

Bachelor Of Arts (Ba), English Literature/ Theology, Gpa 3.5

Education record