Calonette M. McDonald has been an Administrative Law Judge with the District of Columbia, Office of Administrative Hearings since March 2004. Prior to being appointed to the Office of Administrative Hearings, she served as a Hearing Examiner for the District of Columbia, Department of Human Services, Office of Fair Hearings from 1999 until March 2004.

Judge McDonald began her many years of public service in 1984 with the District of Columbia, Department of Human Services. She worked in various capacities while with the Department of Human Services. She served as a paralegal specialist, attorney-advisor in the Office of the General Counsel, child fatality coordinator, and attorney-advisor for the Commission on Social Services. Judge McDonald also worked with the state of Indiana's Department of Social Services as a policy analyst through the National Urban/Rural Fellows Program. 

Judge McDonald earned her undergraduate degree in political science, with a concentration in public administration, from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro; her MPA from Baruch College, City University of New York; and her JD from Howard University School of Law in Washington, DC. 

She is a member of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, and the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. She is a member of National Association of Administrative Law Judges (NAALJ) and its Maryland affiliate, now known as the Maryland and District of Columbia Association of Administrative Adjudicators (MDCAAA).