Peter J. Donaldson is president emeritus of the Population Council and a senior fellow at the Center on Nonprofits, Philanthropy, and Social Enterprise, Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University. He joined the Council after serving as president of the Population Reference Bureau. Earlier in his career, Donaldson was director of the Committee on Population at The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and a staff member at Family Health International (now FHI360).
Donaldson is a former member of the board of directors of the Population Association of America and past president of the Association of Population Centers. He also served as a board member of the Global Health Council and Humentum. He has authored or co-authored numerous scientific articles and popular essays on population, health and development issues. He received a B.A. from Fordham University, a Ph.D. from Brown, and an honorary doctorate from Mahidol University.