Dr. Donahue is the President/Owner of JL Donahue Engineering, based in Oregon, with twenty-seven years of experience managing and supporting various civil geotechnical and seismic projects.  She currently serves as a member of the Dam Safety Advisory Board for the Southern California Edison Company in support of its Dam and Public Safety Group and programs and is a lead expert member of the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research (PEER)  End-User Panel for Ground Motion Directivity. 

Her seismic and geohazard engineering experience includes participation in two Senior Seismic Hazard Analysis Committees (SSHAC) Level 3 projects, multiple probabilistic seismic hazard analyses and peer reviews, development of ground motion attenuation parameters, and geotechnical earthquake reconnaissance. 

Her geotechnical experience includes evaluation of liquefaction and settlement potential of sites, planning, and implementation of field exploration programs, peer review projects and feasibility studies for a variety of geotechnical projects, and selection of foundation systems and development of design criteria. 

Dr. Donahue was a Lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley Civil and Environmental Department, teaching undergraduate courses on geotechnical design. She also is an active member of the Geo-Engineering Extreme Events Reconnaissance (GEER) association for the National Science Foundation. In this role, she led the post-earthquake reconnaissance of the September 2009 Samoa earthquake and subsequent tsunami. She also was on the initial response team for the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami off the coast of Japan in March 2011.  

She is a Professional Engineer in Oregon, California and Washington.

Dr. Donahue recently retired as a member of the US Navy after 27 years, deploying most recently to Iraq and Afghanistan.