Donahue received his PhD in Anthropology from Michigan State University in 1986 where he specialised in the European Stone Age, archaeological (and quantitative) methods, hunter-gatherers, and lithic analyses. He taught for three years at SUNY—Stony Brook and four years at the University of Sheffield before joining the Department of Archaeological Sciences in 1994 and serving as Head from 2002 to 2004. Current teaching responsibilities include contributions to introductory level modules,” World Archaeology” and “Archaeology of the British Isles”, advanced undergraduate modules “Early Prehistory”, “Lithics” and “Experimental Archaeology and Ethnoarchaelogy”, and postgraduate modules “Site Evaluation Methods” and “Palaeolithic Archaeology”. He currently supervises five PhD students (funded by AHRC, NERC and other sources).
Professional activities

Donahue is currently an Adjunct Professor, Department of Anthropology, Michigan State University; Director of the Lithic Microwear Laboratory and Curator of the Douglas Mazonowicz Prehistoric Art Collection, University of Bradford; and Chairs the SoLS Committee of Directors of Postgraduate Research. He is a previous member of the UK Standing Committee for Archaeology; Director, Marie Curie Research Training Site “Archaeological Biogeochemistry”; and co-author of the NERC thematic programme EFCHED (with C. Gamble, A.M. Pollard). He is Associate Editor, CAPRA (Cave Archaeology and Palaeontology Research Archive), co-Guest Editor, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology (Vol. 25), and a reviewer for J. Archaeological Science, Archaeometry, J. of Anthropological Archaeology, and Current Anthropology.

Donahue organized the English Heritage Archaeological Cave Audit Conference in Settle, N. Yorkshire in March 2007) and the Mobility, Contact and Exchange in Temperate Mesolithic Europe symposium with W. Lovis & R. Whallon. at the Society for American Archaeology, Montreal in April 2004, and in September 2006 he was an Invited Session Co-ordinator, for La Tardiglaciale in Italia, Universitá di Roma (La Sapienza), Roma.