Dr. Nicole McDonald

Dr Nicole McDonald is a Senior Research Officer – Agri-tech Education and Extension at CQUniversity Australia with Bachelor of Science Hons 1 (Psychology) and a PhD in the Vocational Psychology of Agriculture. Nicole is an early career researcher in the field of career development within the agricultural industry and has worked on projects within the Australian cotton industry that explore the psychological factors contributing to job satisfaction, and more recently seeking to understand and plan for the future cotton industry workforce. These projects have developed her knowledge of attraction and retention of the agricultural workforce, technology acceptance and adoption, skills development, and leadership within agriculture. She is experienced in survey design, semi-structured interviews, focus groups, quantitative and qualitative approaches to data analysis. Nicole’s objective is a commitment to understand, improve, and promote the quality careers that exist within food and fibre industries. Joining CQU to work on the RACE Gippsland project, she is excited to apply the research she has been doing on workforce attraction to the agriculture industry to design effective career development interventions for primary and secondary students.