An Interview with UMass Lowell Chancellor Jacqueline Moloney

Nicole Lynch
Center For Women and Work
University of Massachusetts Lowell

Jacqueline Moloney is the newly-appointed chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Lowell—the first woman chancellor of this university. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to interview Chancellor Moloney on behalf of the Center for Women & Work near the end of her first 90 days. She enlightened me about her professional career and her goals and beliefs as chancellor of UMass Lowell. 

Photo courtesy of Madelyn Robinson, an Art major here at UMass Lowell.

Chancellor Moloney shared that she feels strongly connected to her identity as a woman and its social and political implications. 

“I have always said that women are the best part of my life. I’ve been very fortunate to be in a large family of women,” said Chancellor Moloney. “Unfortunately, they grew up at a time when, especially for my older sisters, college was not an option for them. They should have gone to college and they never had that opportunity. But they were smart and they pushed all of us.”

Chancellor Moloney added that she was fortunate that when it came time for her to attend college, the feminist movement was coming to life and she had the opportunity to attend UMass Lowell. “I think that absolutely, fundamentally changed my life forever. There were a lot of strong women here who reached down to me as an undergrad, like you, and said, ‘You can be everything you want to be.’ I was just so lucky to have that experience.” 

The chancellor and I also share the experience of belonging to feminist groups on campus. I’m the vice president of a club called F.R.E.E. (Feminism Represents Equality for Everyone) and Chancellor Moloney started the first women’s center at UMass Lowell. She stated: “If I wasn’t a woman, I wouldn’t have gotten to know all of those great women who challenged me, stretched me and taught me to keep going. I think, going forward, I’ve been lucky to have wonderful colleagues who are women and who feel it’s our duty to support each other and to lift us all up collectively.”

“I would put myself in (Sandberg’s) parents’ generation, let me just say that. So I’m not sure that works for women of that generation. There was no ladder. There was no ladder for me. There was no ladder for her mother, I’m sure. I came up through the ranks and I was the only woman in the room just about all of the time. I had to find my own path and I think that was true for most women.”

Chancellor Moloney gave me a book, Mary Catherine Bateson’s Composing a Life. The author, she explained, “talks about how women compose a life. By the nature of who we are and how our lives are organized, we have to compose a life like composing a symphony, where you have to think about the best use of the instruments when you bring them in. You frame it in terms of what your skills are and what your strength is right now as a woman.”

Chancellor Moloney faced critical points in her career when she had to make choices, the biggest of which was to take a break and have children.“It was a big deal and so I chose—but that was part of composing a life,” she said. “I had great confidence that if I followed my passions then it would work out. And it always did for me.” 

She described how, when she was staying home to care for her children, she found other ways to pursue her interests. “We started a women’s conference in Lowell called Womenergy. So I didn’t have to let go of my passions, I just did it in a different way.”

“We provide a very unique education to our students.” She said “There’s no better way for you to stretch your mind than to not just read about a policy, learn a policy, but to really understand it in an applied way.”As an undergraduate at UMass Lowell, she majored in sociology, a course of study that changed her thinking about some things and taught her “that it is your responsibility to go out and make this world a better place.”

Since Chancellor Moloney started her career as a social worker and director of nonprofits in Lowell, she knows “the power of you, and you, and unleashing that power.”
As chancellor, she wants to stress applied learning by students because “it’s really about students who are making a difference, applying their learning and making a difference” and that the university will continue to create opportunities for students to pursue applied learning.
Additionally, Moloney wants to focus on “how we tell our story” as a university because she believes that “we are changing the world through teaching, research and service” and she wants to “empower students and faculty to make a difference.”

By interviewing Chancellor Jacqueline Moloney, I learned that she has succeeded in composing a life that is uniquely her own. She was involved in the community through direct work with disadvantaged populations. She gave back, in incredible ways, to the university at which she completed her undergraduate and doctoral degrees and where she worked for many years in a variety of roles, so much so that the previous chancellor asked her to be his second in command. She has served and continues to serve on the boards of multiple community-focused organizations and has been involved in grassroots community organizing. She’s a staunch feminist as well as a mother and grandmother. And, most important for the future of this university, she has carried her community focus with her in her appointment as chancellor. Chancellor Moloney knows the value of community work through direct experience and she believes wholeheartedly in affording students the opportunities to learn that value for themselves.


I asked the chancellor if she was familiar with the book, Lean In and author Sheryl Sandberg’s theories that careers are like a ladder or a jungle gym (one is straight up the career ladder, one is made up of varied professional experiences). 

As Chancellor, Jacqueline Moloney holds the belief that education should include applied learning and together, students learn skills they can use to make the world a better place. 

Spring Semester Jobs for FAHHS Students

Event & Capacity Building Assistant - The Lawrence Partnership is looking for an intern to help with a variety of project based and administrative tasks as they plan events, implement new initiatives and grow capacity.  After finishing their strategic plan in the fall they will be hosted two large regional events at the same time.  The intern will be deeply involved in some of the logistics, marketing, and leg work associated with preparing for these events.  Additionally, ongoing social media exposure for the Partnership and the City of Lawrence will be built into the internship and potentially the opportunity to do some on the ground marketing and research with local business owners.  (can work some hours remotely)

Event/Communications Intern –  CASE/COOL (Cultural Affairs & Special Events and Cultural Organization of Lowell) are looking for an intern excited to gain exposure and expertise in the fields of nonprofit art and culture communications & marketing. Under the general direction of COOL’s staff, the inter will assist in planning and developing marketing communications to support city-wide cultural events in Lowell.  Duties include, event support (including some evenings & weekends), managing PR binder, updating community calendar listings, creating the COOL Eblast, designing flyers and marketing materials, and general marketing distribution in partnership with COOL’s volunteers.

COOL Place Team Member –  CASE/COOL (Cultural Affairs & Special Events and Cultural Organization of Lowell) are looking for two interns to work at their mobile booths called The COOL Place which will sell locally made items to customers and/or distribute information about arts & culture in the city.  Interns will be responsible for supporting: scheduling the booth at local office buildings, farmers markets, etc., the inventory and acquisition of artists products as well as marketing, sales and promotions.