Brian McDonald earned his B.A. from Elon University and M.A. from North Carolina Central University. He has taught government, history, race relations and poverty in Durham, North Carolina for more than a decade. In 2009, McDonald was named Teacher of the Year at Jordan High School and was a finalist for District Teacher of the Year. He was named "Most Inspirational Teacher" in 2007, 2011, and 2012. He also serves as an Adjunct Lecturing Fellow in the Program in Education at Duke University and was the first fellow at the UNC Poverty Center. In 2014, McDonald was a winner of the Williams College George Olmsted Jr. Class of of 1924 Prize for Excellence in Secondary School Teaching. Most recently, he published his first book Not the End, but the Beginning: The Impact of Race and Class on the History of Jordan High School, 1963-1988 (Patterson & Quinn Press, 2013).