Her fields of expertise include interdisciplinary data integration, artificial intelligence, specifically in knowledge representation and reasoning, description logics, the semantic web, explanation, and trust.

McGuinness completed her Ph.D. in computer science from Rutgers University in 1997 with a thesis titled “Explaining Reasoning in Description Logics”.

McGuinness’ career began in 1980 as a technical staff member for AT&T Bell Labs where for eighteen years, she worked in Artificial Intelligence applied and fundamental research, with business rotations in Home Information Systems, Home Communication Systems and managed an emerging technologies and applications group for AT&T's personal online services.

[3] McGuinness is CEO and president of her own consulting firm for clients wishing to plan, develop, deploy, and maintain semantic web and/or AI applications.

Through her involvement in a variety of research areas, including those mentioned above, McGuiness is successfully leading the design and development of multi-disciplinary health and environmental informatics platforms and applications.