From her early years, McDonald toured widely; besides Israel and the Netherlands, her travels took her to South America and Canada for recitals and to Europe for radio and television broadcasts. She also began to develop what would be a noteworthy academic career. For a time, she served simultaneously as head of harp departments at the Universities of Arizona and Southern California and California State College at Los Angeles. From 1975 to 1985, she was the head of the harp department at the Juilliard School. She then took a position as chairman of the harp department at Indiana University-Bloomington in the Jacobs School of Music, which has the largest harp department in the world; somewhat later, she was named a Distinguished Professor of Music.