It has been about one week since I chose to write my cultural research paper on Krista Donaldson. I’ve been researching more about her life and the responsibilities of successfully starting and running a non-profit prosthetic limbs company. The most useful sources I found before connecting with librarians were JSTOR and EBSCO. Both databases gave clear and specific information pertaining to my topic. My high school provided these databases so I had prior experience and was comfortable using them already.

When I first chose this topic, I knew nothing about the medical field or prosthetic limbs in particular. I took it upon myself to widen my search from Krista Donaldson to the medial industry. I found a few problems with the way I was wording my search engine questions. I took my concerns to Answerland.org, where many volunteers responded with helpful tools to improve my research.

One thing I struggled with was contacting actual librarians. All of my questions were answered by library volunteers, which ended up being just as helpful. Before this assignment, I had never known about this online website that had library experts waiting to answer questions. A few of the questions I included were,

“What is the best way to narrow down the sources provided from a search engine question?”

“What are the best databases for specific information rather than general?”

“What is the best way to save the information I get from a database?”

Being able to chat with library volunteers was overall very helpful. The majority of the time I was able to get a response with links to various scholarly websites that helped with my search about Krista Donaldson and her invention at D-Rev.

Thanks,

M. Simich

Krista Donaldson’s D-Rev

Krista Donaldson, a 40-year-old social-good engineer from Nova Scotia, invented ReMotion, the newest generation of prosthetic limbs. Donaldson attended Stanford where she earned her Ph.D. in medical engineering design and Vanderbilt University where she received a B.E. in mechanical engineering . She is currently the CEO of D-Rev, a non-profit product development organization designed to improve the health and foster the lives of those living on less than $4 a day. D-Rev strives on affordability, safety, and convenience.

Donaldson has many other accomplishments. She guided the reconstruction of Iraq’s electricity sector through The United States American Association for the Advancement of Science. This earned Donaldson an engineering position with the company KickStart, in Kenya, for the following four years. Donaldson grew up with an entrepreneurial state of mind. Her success stems from her parents teaching her to live a selfless life. She devoted herself to those in need.  She taught at Kenyatta University in Nairobi, Kenya and South Africa’s University of Cape Town where she shared her focus on engineering a better and healthier world.

I first read about Krista Donaldson on “The inventors, trailblazers and performers of TEDWomen 2013, “Invented Here.”” I found her life goals inspiring and learned more about her through her company’s website d-rev.org and LinkedIn.

Donaldson is currently living in San Francisco, California where she runs D-Rev. She is active on LinkedIn and TEDtalks.com. I will be looking for all opportunities to get into contact with her to learn more about her mission as a non-profit CEO. However, it might be difficult to get time for an interview with her busy schedule as a CEO. I am following her on LinkedIn and hopefully she connects back with me as the term continues.

Here is a cultural research post for the categories menu.