A PRI Dinner With Heather Mac Donald

Heather Mac Donald is the Thomas W. Smith Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a contributing editor of City Journal, and the New York Times bestselling author of The War on Cops. Her most recent book is When Race Trumps Merit: How the Pursuit of Equity Sacrifices Excellence, Destroys Beauty, and Threatens Lives (2023). She was honored with The New Criterion’s 2025 Edmund Burke Award. She is also a recipient of the 2005 Bradley Prize. Mac Donald’s work at City Journal has covered a range of topics, including higher education, immigration, policing, homelessness and homeless advocacy, criminal-justice reform, and race relations. Her writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The New Republic, and The New Criterion. Her notable books include The War on Cops and The Diversity Delusion. She holds a B.A. in English from Yale University, an M.A. in English from Cambridge University, and a J.D. from Stanford University Law School.