Donna Taraborelli

Donna Taraborelli is a Doctor of Public Health candidate at Harvard. As part of her doctoral research, she worked with a startup founded by a sleep scientist who developed a platform technology to shift human circadian rhythms to optimize sleep. Donna is the co-Managing Director of Nucleate Genesis, a student-led venture creation education program for life science trainees, and is on the leadership team of the Public Health Innovation x Technology Student Forum. She was previously a fellow with Yard Ventures and Harvard’s Office of Technology Development. Donna and her team were also part of Harvard i-Lab’s Venture Incubation Program and semi-finalists in the President’s Innovation Challenge.

Prior to Harvard, Donna worked in drug development across big and small pharmaceutical companies. Most recently, her work supported Clearside Biomedical’s IPO in 2016. She also co-led the company’s first new drug application for XIPERETM, approved in 2021 for the treatment of noninfectious uveitis, and spearheaded the company’s ocular gene therapy delivery program.