Campus led by Jacquie Moloney is top-ranked university for 4th year
11/06/2020
Contacts for media: Christine Gillette, 978-758-4664 or Christine_Gillette@uml.edu and Nancy Cicco, 978-934-4944 or Nancy_Cicco@uml.edu
LOWELL, Mass. – UMass Lowell, led by Chancellor Jacquie Moloney, is ranked among the top 12 organizations on the Top 100 Women-Led Businesses in Massachusetts list and the highest-ranked college or university for the fourth consecutive year.
Compiled annually by The Commonwealth Institute (TCI) in partnership with Boston Globe Magazine, the ranking announced this morning honors the top 100 among the thousands of businesses and organizations led by women executives in Massachusetts. Honorees are selected based on factors including the organization’s impact on the region, employee diversity, revenue and other metrics. This is the fourth year that UMass Lowell has ranked in the top 15 on the list.
“The selection as one of the top 100 women-led businesses in Massachusetts is recognition of the work that all of UMass Lowell’s employees do on behalf of our students on a daily basis. Even as we face a pandemic, the university continues to educate and serve students, inspiring the next generation of leaders,” said Moloney.
Past recognition of Moloney’s leadership at UMass Lowell includes:
- Selected as a 2019 finalist for the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council CEO of the Year;
- Named 2018 Chief Executive HR Champion Award recipient by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources;
- Chosen for the “Women Who Mean Business” honor by the Boston Business Journal in 2017.
Further, the 2019 Eos Foundation report “Women’s Power Gap in Higher Education” praised UMass Lowell for achieving gender parity across various levels of leadership categories, calling the university a “shining model” for other campuses to emulate.
Under Moloney’s guidance, the university has grown to more than 18,000 students, reaching an all-time high in fall 2020 even in the midst of the pandemic. UMass Lowell delivers $1.2 billion in positive economic impact to the region annually, has the highest rating for graduates’ return on investment among all New England public research institutions, according to PayScale.com and is ranked in the top 80 public universities nationwide by U.S. News & World Report.
The home to the Center for Women and Work for more than 20 years, UMass Lowell is leading efforts to close the gender gap across the field of higher education for faculty in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields, including securing a $3.5 million National Science Foundation grant that is funding the development of new models to tackle this challenge.
Moloney – who earned two degrees at UMass Lowell and worked her way up from an entry-level position during more than 30 years at the university – is an internationally recognized leader in education. She founded UMass Lowell’s online education program, growing it to more than 30,000 enrollments annually in 62 online undergraduate and graduate degree and certificate programs that have won honors for quality in academics and teaching.
An early proponent for integrating entrepreneurship education across academic disciplines, Moloney established DifferenceMaker. The award-winning program, a national model for teaching entrepreneurship, engages thousands of students in all majors each year and has led to the launch of more than 30 companies and eight patents.
The university operates four business incubators for technology and medical device entrepreneurs in the region and collaborates with ventures from startups to major employers to advance research and provide students with opportunities for real-world experience.
UMass Lowell is a national research university offering its more than 18,000 students bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in business, education, engineering, fine arts, health, humanities, sciences and social sciences. UMass Lowell delivers high-quality educational programs and personal attention from leading faculty and staff, all of which prepare graduates to be leaders in their communities and around the globe. www.uml.edu