Jan McDonald specialises in environmental law, especially the legal dimensions of climate change impacts and adaptation, trade and investment liberalisation, environmental impact assessment, and sustainable development in the Pacific. In 2004-2005, Jan served as Environment Program Manager for the United Nations Development Program’s Pacific multi-country office, in Solomon Islands, and has served as a consultant to the Government of Vanuatu and Solomon Islands, as well as several environmental non-government organizations. 

She co-founded the Griffith Climate Change Response Program in 2006 and has been director of that Program since 2007. She led Griffith University’s successful bid to host the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility and is currently the Facility’s Interim Director, overseeing its establishment.