She accelerated her education by taking classes year-round, and by the age of 19, she graduated with a bachelor's degree in Psychology with three minors in English, Math and Biology.

After becoming interested in what a video game was, her friend took her to a nearby bar which had a Space Invaders arcade cabinet.

[10] Due to the game's popularity, Atari's production line was forced to run two shifts to keep up with demand.

This was intentional, as Logg and Bailey designed the game to appeal to a broad audience, not just male players.

[5] In 2008, Bailey joined the faculty in the department of Rhetoric and Writing at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock[17] where she taught until her retirement.

[5][14] In April 2013, Dona Bailey was a guest speaker at Indie Tech Talk, a lecture series presented by the Game Innovation Lab at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering.

[18] In November 2018, Dona Bailey was an honored guest speaker alongside Bonnie Ross, Brenda Laurel, Megan Gaiser, Amy Hennig, Susan Jaekel, Jen MacLean, Sheri Graner Ray, and Victoria Van Voorhis at the "Women in Games: Inspire!"

panel, as part of the first annual "Women in Games" exhibit at The Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York.

[19][20] The panel was the opening event for the exhibit which celebrates the contributions of women in the video game industry.

[21] As of 2019, Bailey had written a screenplay titled, Sunnyvale based on her experiences at Atari as a programmer on Centipede, and is trying to get it picked up.