Jacqueline Moloney

In July 2021, Moloney announced plans to step down as chancellor following the 2021-22 academic year.  She intends to continue her work as a professor at UMass Lowell.

The university officially reopened its oldest building, Coburn Hall, in September 2021 following a $47 million renovation. The original building opened in 1897 as Lowell Normal School, which was founded in the city three years earlier to train teachers. Coburn Hall currently houses UMass Lowell’s education and psychology departments. The Coburn renovation included the restoration of a 1930s era Works Progress Administration mural of the city of Lowell, in the building’s ballroom, which had been covered by beige paint in the 1980s. The 64-by-10-foot mural was rediscovered in 2015. Its restoration was led by Gianfranco Pocobene, chief conservator of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.

As a UMass Lowell executive, Moloney oversaw a number of building and renovation projects. In April 2019, the university marked the completion of a $50 million renovation and addition to Perry Hall on North Campus. The updated building includes research labs for biomedical, chemical and environmental engineering, as well as bio-manufacturing and clean energy. The project also addressed  repairs needed from a 2012 fire. The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center contributed $5 million to renovate the building’s third floor, which houses the biomedical and bio-manufacturing labs.

In November 2018, Moloney as chancellor interviewed talk-show host, producer, author and philanthropist Oprah Winfrey onstage in the third installment of the Chancellor’s Speaker Series. (Previous guests were Stephen King and Meryl Streep.)

Moloney was selected as a finalist for the Mass. Technology Leadership Council CEO of the Year award in 2018 and 2019 and was named Chief Executive HR Champion by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources in 2018.

In 2017, Moloney was recognized as one of seven prominent “Women Who Mean Business” by the Boston Business Journal. In 2021, she was number 19 on the Boston Globe's Top 100 Women-Led Businesses in Massachusetts. In May of 2021, she received the "Make a Difference" award from Strongwater Farm.

Moloney was one of 20 people interviewed for the position of chancellor in 2015 by a 24-member search committee selected to replace Marty Meehan, who had been named president of the UMass System. The UMass Board of Trustees voted unanimously to appoint Moloney, with the support of the faculty senate and faculty union, on Aug. 3, 2015, making her the first woman to lead UMass Lowell.

As executive vice chancellor and chancellor, Moloney led development of a 10-year strategic plan. During the plan’s implementation, from 2010 to 2020, the university built or renovated 18 buildings; moved athletic teams to Division I; improved its 6-year graduation rate from 51 percent to 70 percent; grew enrollment from 14,686 students to 18,400 students; and increased external research funding by $16 million. The strategic plan also included a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. Moloney oversaw creation of a Council on Social Justice & Inclusion to promote equity while confronting gender discrimination and sexual harassment.

In 1994, having received an Ed.D. that made her a “double River Hawk” (with two degrees from UMass Lowell), Moloney joined the faculty and was named Dean of Online and Continuing Education. She held the position until 2007, when she was named Executive Vice Chancellor.

Moloney began her career with Lowell organizations before going to work at UMass Lowell — then called the University of Lowell — as director of talent search and college prep in 1984. She was later director of admissions, director of freshman programs, dean of University College and director of the Centers for Learning.

Jacqueline Moloney (born July 1953) is the former and first female chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Lowell.