Smith Names New Board of Trustees Chair

At its meeting February 22, the Smith College Board of Trustees elected Susan May Molineaux ’75 as the next chair of the board. She will serve a three-year term beginning July 1.

Molineaux succeeds Alison Overseth ’80. Overseth has been a member of the board of trustees since 2012 and was elected chair in 2020, presiding over the board through the COVID-19 pandemic, the search for a new president, and the appointment and inauguration of President Sarah Willie-LeBreton. Overseth had served as chair of the board’s External Affairs and Advancement Committees.

A member and Vice Chair of the Smith Board of Trustees since 2017, Molineaux has served on a number of committees and working groups, including the Enrollment Working Group that recommended the college’s elimination of loans from financial aid packages, the External Affairs Committee, the Governance Committee, the Executive Committee, chair of the President Search Committee, and the Inauguration Committee (co-chaired with Senior Vice President for Alumnae Relations and Development Beth Raffeld).

Molineaux is a leading cancer researcher and drug discovery and development innovator in the biotechnology field. Co-founder, president, and CEO of Para Therapeutics, Molineaux previously co-founded Calithera Biosciences, where she was CEO from 2010 to 2023. She also co-founded Proteolix, where she served for two years as that company’s chief scientific officer before becoming president and CEO. Molineaux held leadership positions at Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Praelux, and Praecis Pharmaceuticals. From 1989 until 1994, she was a scientist at Merck.

Molineaux earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Smith, a Ph.D. in molecular biology from Johns Hopkins University, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Columbia University. A director at Geron and Repare Therapeutics, and a scientific advisor at Lightstone Ventures, Molineaux received the Smith Medal in 2014. She lives in San Francisco.