Heather Mac Donald

Heather Mac Donald is the Thomas W. Smith Fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal. A non-practicing lawyer, Heather has clerked for the Honorable Stephen Reinhardt, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and has been an attorney-adviser in the Office of the General Counsel of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and a volunteer with the Natural Resources Defense Council in New York City.

The New Jersey State Law Enforcement Officers Association conferred its Civilian Valor Award on her in 2004. She was awarded the 2008 Integrity in Journalism award from the New York State Shields. She was also the recipient of the 2008 Eugene Katz Award for Excellence in the Coverage of Immigration from the Center for Immigration Studies and the 2012 Quill & Badge Award for Excellence in Communication from the International Union of Police Associations.

Her writing has also appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York Times, the New Republic, Partisan Review, the New Criterion, Public Interest, and Academic Questions.

Heather received her BA in English from Yale University, graduating with a Mellon Fellowship to Cambridge University, where she earned her MA in English and studied in Italy through a Clare College study grant. Her JD is from Stanford University Law School.