As the Head of Operations and People, Molly Cronin ensures that Newark Alliance's internal operations and human resources functions run efficiently and effectively.

An operational leader with more than 15 years of experience across the public, nonprofit, and for-profit sectors, Molly specializes in managing complex, cross-sector partnerships and turning leadership vision into well-implemented operations. Prior to Newark Alliance, Molly worked as a public sector consultant, partnering with government, nonprofit, and foundation clients on place-based, equitable human services programs. In this role, she led an inter-agency process to improve youth diversion programming with a county juvenile court and designed a participatory governance structure for a southern U.S. city, working across municipal government and community nonprofits and advocates.

Earlier in her career, Molly built deep expertise in program management, organizational change and strategy, policy analysis, and strategic partnerships. Her background includes education technology operations, K-12 education policy research, and building partnerships across nonprofit, foundation, and corporate organizations. Molly holds a Master of Public Administration from NYU's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and a B.S. in Communication from Cornell University.

Outside of work, Molly volunteers with a mutual aid group in her community, helping migrants and asylum seekers access essential resources and services. She is driven by curiosity about people, places, and cultures, and can often be found traveling, cooking and eating new cuisines, or taking in live performances and art of any kind.