Michelle McDonald, M.D.

Michelle McDonald, M.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery and the Department of Urology at UT Southwestern Medical Center. She specializes in living kidney donation, living-donor paired kidney transplantation, and perioperative urologic considerations in kidney transplants.

Dr. McDonald earned her medical degree at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. She completed a residency in urology at UC San Diego Health and a fellowship in renal transplant surgery at UCLA Health.

Certified by the American Board of Urology and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons, she joined the UT Southwestern faculty in 2022. Previously, she served as Director of the Living Donor Renal Transplant Program at St. David’s North Austin Medical Center in Austin, where she started the city’s first national program for swapping living kidney donations.

Dr. McDonald serves as Surgical Director for Living Donor Renal Transplant at UT Southwestern’s Clements University Hospital. She has delivered numerous presentations, contributed to the book Smith & Tanagho’s General Urology, and published many academic articles related to her areas of expertise. She is co-author of American Urological Association (AUA) Update: Urology Consultation in Renal Transplantation, the first such text of its kind.

She is a member of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons and the AUA. She also serves as a reviewer for The Journal of Urology.

Personal Note

Dr. McDonald’s personal interests include the humane treatment of all animals, vegan living, and weight training.