James H. McDonald holds a PhD from Arizona State University, an MS from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and a BA from the University of Arizona – all in anthropology. Prior to coming to the University of Montevallo as Provost, he has served as Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences at Southern Utah University from 2008-2017. From 1995-2008 he earned the rank of Professor of Anthropology and held a variety of administrative positions at the University of Texas at San Antonio, including Department Chair, Senior Associate Dean, and Associate Vice Provost. He began his academic career at the University of Michigan-Flint in 1992.

He is an applied cultural anthropologist with 30 years of fieldwork experience in rural Mexico and the Maya Western Highlands of Guatemala. Much of his research centers on problems concerning rural development, inequality, globalization, power, governance dynamics, and the anthropology of higher education. He also served as a Fulbright Senior Specialist at the School of Governance and Economics in Rabat Morocco.