Dr. Ron McDonald is a Quaker and pastoral counselor in Memphis, Tennessee, employed with the Samaritan Counseling Centers, the Church Health Center, and Memphis Theological Seminary. He was born in 1951 and raised in Arkansas, the second of seven sons of a United Methodist minister and his wife, Charles and Lois McDonald.
He was educated at Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas, Union Theological Seminary in New York City, Saint Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, Missouri, and the Training Institute for Counseling and Therapy of the Foundation for Religion and Mental Health in Briarcliff Manor, New York.
He began his ministerial career as Campus Minister at Western Connecticut State University. He and his family moved to Memphis in 1985 where he began working full time as a pastoral counselor.
He is a Diplomate in the American Association of Pastoral Counselors and Tennessee Licensed Clinical Pastoral Therapist, and author of Building the Therapeutic Sanctuary: The Fundamentals of Psychotherapy – A Pastoral Counseling Perspective (1stBooks Library, 2000), and Home Again: A Pilgrimage of Father and Son (1stBooks Library, 2002), and The Spirituality of Community Life: When We Come ‘Round Right (Haworth Press, Binghamton, NY, 2006).
He is an elected leader of the American Association of Pastoral Counselors (currently AAPC Cerfication Chair) and the President of the Tennessee Association of Pastoral Therapists, a part-time teacher in pastoral counseling at Memphis Theological Seminary, a parent educator, has taught philosophy at Northwest Mississippi Community College, and is a speaker and preacher in churches and other organizations.
Ron became a Quaker in 1979 and has thrice been presiding Clerk of the Memphis Friends Meeting. Currently he is Clerk of Ministry & Nuture. He is a Friends Journal magazine board member and clerk of the Development Committee.
Additionally, he is a folksinger and storyteller, performing with his guitar and hammer dulcimer. He is about to release his second CD. For a year he was a daily children’s television show host of “The Rickety Bridge” in Danbury, CT. An avid dancer and teacher of waltz and Zydeco, he was the coordinator of the annual Memfest Dance Festival from 2002-2011. He is an active outdoors person, and is married to Susan Penn, a librarian. Together they have two grown sons.
To contact Dr. McDonald, please send him an email from his contact page.