Brigadier General (Retired) Anne Macdonald graduated from West Point in 1980 in the first gender-integrated class and served just short of 31 years in the Army leading and building highly effective teams. Anne is a senior Army aviator qualified as a UH60 Blackhawk pilot, a paratrooper, and is air assault qualified. She served four years in the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) and 18th Airborne Corps, seven years in the Republic of Korea, and over 2 ½ years in the 1st Armored Division, in Germany. She was the first active-duty, combat arms (aviator) female to be promoted to General Officer.
BG (Ret) Macdonald commanded a General Support Aviation Battalion in the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and commanded an Aviation Brigade in the Republic of Korea. She completed two combat tours, one in Operation Desert Storm in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Kuwait, and the other in Operation Enduring Freedom, Afghanistan.
Her key assignments in the Army include serving as the Deputy Director of Operations, National Military Command Center, Joint Chiefs of Staff, The Pentagon; Deputy Commanding General, 7th Infantry Division and Fort Carson, Colorado later designated Division West, First Army and Fort Carson; Chief of Staff, United States Army Reserve Command, Fort McPherson, Georgia and Deputy Commanding General for the NATO Training Mission (Police Development) in Kabul, Afghanistan.
She holds a bachelor of science from the United States Military Academy and two master of science degrees; one in Systems Management from the University of Southern California and the other in Strategic Studies from the US Air War College, Montgomery, Alabama.
Anne retired from active duty in 2011 with multiple awards and distinctions. She has over 20 years of executive-level leadership experience and has developed and trained high-performing organizations and teams around the globe. She is the President of the Army Women’s Foundation, headquartered at Fort Gregg-Adams, Virginia.
She and her husband, MG John Macdonald, USA, Retired, USMA Class of 1979, reside in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates.
