Smith College Welcomes Five New Trustees

Anne Donovan Bodnar ’78

Anne Donovan Bodnar ’78 is an executive coach and strategic advisor, with previous experience as chief administrative officer and chief human resources officer at Willis Towers Watson.

As CHRO, Bodnar held primary management responsibility for the Willis Towers Watson Board Compensation Committee and supported the board’s risk, nominating, and governance committees on key matters including CEO succession planning, leadership development, and ESG initiatives. As CAO, she oversaw marketing, communications, strategy and innovation, transformation, operations, and technology. In both roles, she led complex global initiatives focused on merger integration and organizational transformation.

Earlier in her career, she held positions in strategic planning, management consulting, and banking operations. She holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a bachelor’s degree in French civilization and government from Smith College.

Bodnar serves on the board of trustees of the New World Symphony, is vice-chair of the Adirondack Museum, and recently completed her tenure as chair of the Smith College Museum of Art Visiting Committee. She is also an active member of the International Women’s Forum.

Midge Costin ’78

Midge Costin ’78 is the inaugural holder of the Kay Rose Endowed Chair in the Art of Sound Editing at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, established by George Lucas in 2005. She directed and produced the award-winning documentary Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and internationally at Cannes in 2019. The film earned multiple awards and a Critics Choice Documentary Award nomination for Best First Time Director. Most recently, Costin directed and produced a 20-minute film that serves as the official sound exhibit for the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles.

She began her career as a feature film sound editor in Hollywood, working with directors such as Tony Scott, Michael Bay, and John Waters, and producer Jerry Bruckheimer. Her work on Crimson Tide and Armageddon contributed to both films receiving Academy Award nominations for sound editing.

Costin is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, where she serves on the Sound Branch Executive Committee and the LGBTQ+ Coalition. She holds a master’s degree in film production from the USC School of Cinematic Arts and a bachelor’s degree in art history from Smith College. She is also an avid sailor and former world champion surf kayaker.

Ronald A. Crutcher

Ronald A. Crutcher served as president of the University of Richmond from 2015 to 2021 and is president emeritus of Wheaton College in Massachusetts. He previously served as provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at Miami University in Ohio. In 2021, he was named a senior fellow in the Aspen Institute’s College Excellence Program.

A distinguished leader in higher education and the arts, Dr. Crutcher is vice president of the Phi Beta Kappa Society and serves on the boards of IES Abroad, the Richmond Symphony Orchestra, the Richmond Forum, Spider Management Company, the Jepson Scholars Foundation, Agnes Scott College in Georgia, and Bard College Berlin. A former member of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, he has also served on the boards of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Richmond Symphony, and Berklee College of Music.

An accomplished cellist, he began studying at age 15 and made his Carnegie Hall debut in 1985. He was the first cellist to earn the doctor of musical arts degree from Yale University, where he also earned his master’s degree.

He is married to Betty Neal Crutcher, an educational consultant and mentor-in-residence at the University of Richmond’s Jepson School of Leadership Studies.

Xiaole Shirley Liu ’97

Xiaole Shirley Liu ’97 is the co-founder and CEO of GV20 Therapeutics, a clinical-stage, AI-driven biotherapeutics company focused on next-generation cancer treatments. The company’s lead program in development as a potential cancer immunotherapy is GV20-0251—a monoclonal antibody targeting the novel immune checkpoint IGSF8. It is the first AI-designed antibody against an AI-predicted target to enter clinical trials for treating advanced solid tumors. GV20’s proprietary STEAD AI platform enabled the program to advance from target discovery to investigational new drug (IND) approval in just three years, with early clinical data showing a favorable safety profile and promising efficacy in patients with advanced metastatic cancer.

Liu graduated from Smith College with a double major in biochemistry and computer science and earned her Ph.D. in biomedical informatics, with a minor in computer science, from Stanford University. Before founding GV20, she was a professor of biostatistics and computational biology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and at Harvard University. She is a leading expert in computational cancer biology, has authored more than 270 publications, and holds an H-index of 131 (a measurement of the productivity and citation impact of her publications). She has mentored 28 Ph.D. and postdoctoral trainees to go on to independent academic careers.

Liu is a fellow of the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB) and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE). She previously served as a Breast Cancer Research Foundation investigator and has received numerous honors, including the Sloan Research Fellowship, the Weitzman Outstanding Early Career Investigator Award from the Endocrine Society, the ISCB Innovator Award, and the Benjamin Franklin Award for Open Access in the Life Sciences.

Lara Marcon ’91

Lara Marcon ’91 brings more than 30 years of financial leadership experience to the Smith College Board of Trustees. After earning a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Smith College, she began her career with Morgan Stanley and Lehman Brothers, where she completed a certificate in portfolio management through the CFA Institute.

Marcon is a dedicated advocate for the arts, education, literacy, nutrition, and women’s reproductive rights. She has worked with a wide range of nonprofit organizations, including The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, the National Institute for Reproductive Health, and the Metropolitan Opera. She currently serves on the boards of The Metropolitan Opera and the Central Park Conservancy Women’s Committee.

A committed Smith volunteer, Marcon has held leadership roles with The Smith Fund and the Smith College Club of New York. She has also served as treasurer of the Alumnae Association of Smith College Board of Directors and began a four-year term as president of the board in July 2025.