Ilana Golant is the founder and CEO of the Food Allergy Fund (FAF), the leading nonprofit accelerating research to prevent, treat, and cure food allergies and related immune diseases.

She founded FAF in 2018 after her daughter was diagnosed with multiple life-threatening food allergies, leaving a career in media, law, and public service to address gaps slowing scientific progress and delaying solutions for patients. Having since developed adult-onset food allergies herself, Ilana brings both professional expertise and lived experience to advancing patient-led innovation.

Through the Food Allergy Fund, she has helped launch the first multi-institution Microbiome Research Collective, create the only global Drug Repurposing Program dedicated to advancing clinical trials of FDA-approved medicines to prevent anaphylaxis, and support AI and wearable technologies to improve safety and diagnostics. She convenes cross-sector networks that align science, capital, and policy to shorten the path from discovery to patient impact.

Ilana serves on the Milken Institute’s Changemakers Council and on the Executive Committee of the Healthcare Division at UJA-Federation of New York. She previously held executive roles at NBCUniversal and WPP, served in the U.S. Department of the Treasury, practiced law at Mayer Brown LLP, and earned degrees from Columbia University and NYU School of Law.