Donna La Hood graduated from the School of Optometry at the University of New South Wales, Sydney Australia in 1983. Since then she has worked at the Cornea and Contact Lens Research Unit (University of NSW), the Institute for Eye Research, the Cooperative Research Centre for Eye Research and Technology, the Vision Cooperative Research Centre, the Brien Holden Vision Institute and the School of Optometry and Vision Science at UNSW Sydney

Her past research interests included contact lens design, fitting, comfort and parameter evaluation, the corneal edema response and assessment of new lens materials.  Donna has also taken an interest in commercialisation of medical devices including regulatory compliance, becoming an internal auditor for ISO13485 certified institutions.

Donna is also an educator in many Optometric undergraduate, post graduate and continuing education (practitioner) programs domestically and internationally for over 40 years. She has a keen interest in both ‘face-to-face’ and online program development and presentation, including development of innovative educational materials for all program platforms.

She is currently a Senior Lecturer at the School of Optometry and Vision Science at UNSW Sydney in an Education Focussed role.