Tara L. Kieffer, Ph.D. joined Enanta in December 2020. Prior to Enanta, Dr. Kieffer was at Vertex Pharmaceuticals where she held roles of increasing responsibility. Most recently, she was Vice President, External Innovation, Business Development where she was responsible for assessing the external innovation landscape and leading projects aimed at identifying in-licensing and acquisition opportunities. Prior to that, she was Vice President, Integrated Program Management, after being Senior Director, Chief of Staff to the Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Kieffer also held the positions of Director, Clinical Biomarkers and Head of Clinical Virology where she built and led a team responsible for laboratory and clinical research studies to understand the development of antiviral drug resistance to Hepatitis C and influenza viruses. Before joining Vertex, Dr. Kieffer was at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, where her research studies focused on ongoing replication in patients with well-suppressed Human Immunodeficiency Virus infection.

Dr. Kieffer graduated summa cum laude from Colgate University with a B.A. in Molecular Biology. She holds a Ph.D. in Immunology from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She is co-author on more than 50 publications and an inventor on multiple patents involving treatments for Hepatitis.