Professor Donahue received his M.D. from Tufts University in 1992. He has trained in neurology at Tufts-New england Medical Center and in neuropathology at Rhode Island Hospital. He spent four years at the New Jersey Neuroscience as Director of Neuropathology. He returned to RIH/Brown Medical School in 2003 to practice clinical neuropathology and pursue academic research in neurodegenerative diseases and the blood-brain barrier. He is both a neurologist and neuropathologist, a rare combination.