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Donaldson is the executive
director of the Elyria YWCA, a position she has held since
1980. She has pioneered innovative programs for low-income
women and children and has advanced programs dealing with
race, class and the disadvantaged. She received “Women
Making a Difference Award” in 1996 from the Ohio Department
of Health, which acknowledged her as a “woman who has made
an impact in the elimination of health disparities among
women and people of color.” During that time, she secured a
federal grant to establish the first Transitional Housing
Program in Lorain County.
In 1995, Donaldson ran for
the Lorain Board of Education and won the first of her three
four-year terms on the board. She was the only
African-American board member during that time in a district
where 60 percent of the students were African American or
Hispanic.
In 2002, Donaldson was
appointed to the Ohio Civil Rights Commission by then
Governor Bob Taft and became chairperson of the board in
2006 – the first female chairperson in the five-decade
history of the board.
In 2008, Donaldson
received the National YWCA Sojourner Truth Award, the
highest award given to a YWCA employee in the nation; she is
also a recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award from
Oberlin College.
Chief among Donaldson’s concerns about the current state of
education and the way government officials are handling it
in Columbus is the recent passage of HB 70 -
the state's way of taking over
"failing" school districts to turn them around. The biggest
changes that are included in the bill: hiring a CEO to run
the district, promoting more charter schools, possible
mayoral control and possibly overriding parts of union
contracts.
“I can bring some perspective,” said Donaldson, referring to
her knowledge of what happened in Lorain when the state took
over that district prior to the passage of HB 70. A former
elementary music teacher in the Lorain City Schools,
Donaldson, in fact, has a good deal of perspective to bring
to bear as a member of the Ohio Board of Education.
“I can effect change,” she said. “I do believe that wherever
I am, I can effect change.”
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