Madeline Hilliard
DopaGE Founder & CEO Madeline Hilliard is the Founder, Board Chair & former Executive Director of Team Awareness Combating Overdose (TACO), a 501(c)3 non-profit that reduces accidental drug overdoses among students through access to harm reduction materials. Since its founding in 2020, TACO has saved over 1000 lives according to user reports. Hilliard led the winning team in USC’s 2022 Social Venture Competition securing $20k in grant funding to launch DopaGE. DopaGE expands on TACO’s success with students to scale a more accessible learning environment for life-saving lessons. Hilliard studied Computational Neuroscience at USC and is an EMT who works directly in overdose response in ambulance and ER settings. In parallel to DopaGE and TACO, Madeline is currently consulting on projects for Indivior Pharmaceuticals and the California Department of Health Care Services.
Madeline’s path from pre-med to philanthropist to entrepreneur pivoted on a May morning in 2020 when she got word that a friend of hers had not woken up that day due to a polysubstance overdose. He was the 12th student to die of an OD that year at her school. Madeline was frustrated that a fully preventable cause of death was taking the lives of so many of her peers. The details of her friend’s passing showed 3 distinct moments where, had her friend or bystanders known a few key pieces of information, his death could have been prevented. The problem seemed illogical, and the solution was simple: education. The necessary education on substances’ mechanisms of action, laws around calling for help, and practices to reduce mortality risks all fell in the scope of her neuroscience and emergency medical services education. That day she made calls to begin developing that education and making it accessible to those who need it. (Overdose is now the leading cause of death for Americans 18-45, so everyone needs it.)
Her teams bring that to reality. Her work has been featured by ABC News, NBC News, LA Times, New York Times, Hollywood Reporter, and LA County Public Health.
Featured Publications
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Indivior Pharma
FDA approves Opvee (nasal nalmafene), Madeline Hilliard quoted in Indivior’s official press release of Opvee’s FDA approval.
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Fentanyl Awareness Day
For the 2nd National Fentanyl Awareness Day, Expert Speaker Series on Fentanyl in Party Drugs: Harm Reduction Strategies with Hilliard
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ABC News
“He’s alive today because we were able to educate his friends around him, so that when he did overdose, they were prepared to respond.”
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LA County Public Health
Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Overdose Prevention Guide recommending TACO’s free Fentanyl Test Strip program
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CBS Los Angeles
Local news coverage of LA Public Health’s warning on Xylazine featuring Hilliard reestablishing Fentanyl Test Strips’ utility in avoiding “tranc.”
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Hollywood Reporter
That’s the case at USC, where a new nonprofit, Trojan Awareness Combating Overdose, distributed 1,000 test strips to partygoers in September alone.
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Los Angeles Times
“She, Madeline Hilliard and three other students wanted to do something about it, and they believed the root of the issue was a lack of education about drugs.”
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New York Times
“The nonprofit TACO (Team Awareness Combating Overdose) has given away thousands of strips to students on at least a dozen college campuses.”
