Jill Fuss (she/her)
Managing Director, Activate Berkeley
Jill Fuss is managing director of the Activate Berkeley Community, where she uses her technical and startup expertise to mentor fellows. She spent 20 years at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) researching the structural biology and molecular mechanisms of DNA repair enzymes. During her time at Berkeley Lab, she co-founded Cinder Biological, Inc., a biotech company producing industrial enzymes, and was an Activate Fellow in the 2018 cohort. An advocate for access to science and entrepreneurship, Fuss received the Berkeley Lab’s Director’s Award for Exceptional Diversity Achievement and the Visionary Award from the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce, among other accolades. Fuss has a Ph.D. in molecular and cell biology from U.C. Berkeley and a B.A. in environmental science from Wesleyan University.