Michele Oka Doner was born in Miami Beach, Florida in 1945. Oka Doner earned a bachelor of science and design (BSDES) in 1966, and her MFA in 1968, both from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. In 1969, she completed postgraduate work at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan.

Oka Doner lives and works in New York City as a designer, author, and artist. Her design work includes collections for Christofle and Steuben Glass. Her sculpture and functional objects are included in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago in Illinois, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, Virginia, the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Her public art commissions include work for New York’s Herald Square Subway Station, the Miami International Airport, Rutgers University, and the Ocean County Library in New Jersey. Oka Doner is represented by the Marlborough Gallery in New York.

Oka Doner has been awarded grants from the Samuel Ruben Foundation (1985), The New York State Council for the Arts (1987), the L. J. Skaggs and Mary Skaggs Foundation (1989), the Kress Foundation (1989), and the Dorothea L. Leonhardt Foundation (1991). She is also the recipient of the 2003 Zeitgeist Award from the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York, the 2006 “Legends” Award from Pratt Institute in New York, and the 2007 “Stars of Design” Award by the Decoration and Design Building in New York. Oka Doner was awarded a 2011 Honorary Doctorate Degree in Fine Arts from The New York School of Interior Design, in New York City.