School of Law: Molly Colaneri

Molly Colaneri is an accomplished attorney with extensive expertise in government contracting and federal acquisition. She holds a J.D. from the University of Akron School of Law and a B.S.B.A. from Youngstown State University.

In her role at Collins Aerospace, Molly oversees USG contracts compliance, drawing on her prior experience as an employee of the U.S. Department of Defense. There she handled large-scale, billion-dollar negotiations between government agencies and private defense industry contractors, navigating complex issues related to ACAT I system-level production, development and sustainment programs, data license agreements, foreign military sales, source selection, and commercial item pricing. Her work has required deep knowledge of federal regulations, drafting contract language, and ensuring contractual compliance.

Molly has also contributed to more scholarly contributions and leadership in her field—she was a featured presenter at the 2017 Department of Defense Contracting Conference, offering insights from the contracting officer’s perspective on an innovative market pricing assessment of a commercial derivative aircraft with many of her techniques being featured in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), Department of Defense Guidebook for Acquiring Commercial Items. During her tenure at the Defense Acquisition University, Molly created a Leadership Development program still utilized today focusing on self-awareness and development of mission critical soft-skills essential to growing future leaders across various functionals within the DoD. In her current teaching capacity at the University of Dayton, she instructs Contracts III: Drafting and Business/Contract Law for Government Contracting and Program Management, bringing to students both academic depth and real-world perspectives from both industry and government.

J.D., University of Akron School of Law

B.S.B.A., Youngstown State University

Contracts III: Drafting - Law 2007