Born Jennifer Enid Bint, McDonald grew up in the farming locality of Maungakaramea, in Northland. She studied teaching in Auckland, then taught at the primary school in Outram, near Dunedin, where she met her future husband, Rex McDonald.[2]
McDonald played 192 matches for the national hockey team from 1971 to 1985, including 94 tests, and captained the team from 1980 to 1985. She was the only New Zealander selected in a World XI that played the world champion Netherlands in a one-off encounter in Scotland in 1980.[3] She retired from hockey at 53 after breaking her wrist. Later, she became President of the Otago Hockey Association, then chair of Southern Regional Hockey.[2]