Pat McDonough

Pat McDonough, a graduate of American University School of Government & Public Administration, Washington, DC, is the proud mother of two grown sons, and grandmother of three boys. Writing and editing have been a life-long vocation. She was editor of the high school paper at Academy of the Holy Cross and received a scholarship to study journalism at Catholic University. It happened to be a presidential election year; as a campaign worker, she quickly took on more and more challenging assignments to prepare campaign literature, position papers, legislation, and even to assisting with press releases for the Office of the President.

While attending American University at night, Pat worked as a writer/researcher under contract to the National Association of Counties’ Research Foundation (NACORF). There she researched and wrote for the US Public Health Service and County Government Magazine Solid Waste Management for use by county government officials. One chapter reprinted as a stand alone booklet, Gaining and Maintaining Public Acceptance in Solid Waste Management, became a best seller at the Government Printing Office the following year.

After reading the Maryland Constitution written in colonial times, Ms. McDonough became annoyed by the sexist language, inclusion of obsolete occupations (e.g. horse apple collector), regulation of parking in the City of Baltimore, and other things that had been tacked onto the document. She convinced others to join with her, and in a seven-year effort, they created a sample model constitution for the State of Maryland. It was a catalyst for the State Constitutional Reform movement which took off across the country.

After 1981, events made it clear that the composition of homeless people in America had changed. Patients had been dumped on the street as an unintended consequence of the Least Restrictive Setting Supreme Court ruling about confinement of the mentally ill. She took up the challenge to make the plight of the homeless real to people who could make a difference. Pat McDonough’s book, Without Keys, My 15 Weeks With the Street People, was in the final round for a Pulitzer Prize in biography in 1997.

Pat spent ten years as a volunteer counselor helping friends and families create effective care teams to assist persons with terminal illness. She helped to formulate more than 450 such teams.

Her interest in architecture, housing, real estate and development led to the creation of Pat McDonough Consulting Services. As generalist consultant with specialties in affordable housing development, construction management, home inspection, mortgage finance, and non-profit management, she put together complex financial deals, moved 7 houses and apartment buildings, built more than 45 homes, and renovated or was responsible for the renovation of more than 300 homes. Apart from that, she was a private home inspector, who inspected so many hundreds of residential structures that she stopped counting.

In 2000, Pat officially retired from building inspection, construction management, and home renovation work for others, to renovate her own home and devote more time to her creative non-fiction writing.

As a free-lance writer, she has had numerous articles and photographs published. She is presently a member of the Space Coast Writers’ Guild and the 2nd Monday Photographers’ Guild. Pat has been President of Minnesota Independent Scholars’ Forum; Treasurer of Midwest Independent Publishers’ Association; former member, Publishers’ Marketing Association; Vice President of the Minnesota Society of Housing Inspectors, and was on the editorial staff of Literary Liftoff magazine.

Ms. McDonough now makes her living editing and coaching writers who intend to become authors. Since 1986, she has edited hundreds of books and most have become published. She has chosen to publish seven of them. There are more in the pipeline. See her McDONOUGH CONSULTING business listing on the Additional Resources page.