W&L Welcomes New Trustees Cynthia Cheatham ’07, Kelly Golub ’93 and Jim Lawson ’77 All three were sworn in as trustees of their alma mater on May 19.

W&L Office of Communications and Public Affairs
May 19, 2023

Cynthia Cheatham ’07, Kelly Golub ’93 and Jim Lawson ’77 joined the Washington and Lee University Board of Trustees on May 19, at the board’s spring meeting in Lexington.

Cynthia Cheatham ’07 graduated from W&L with a B.A. in politics and Spanish. She is Managing Director, Industry Programs and DEI Initiatives at Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), where she works with business leaders, development executives and investors to educate the industry on market trends, investment, policy, therapeutic pipelines and patient advocacy, and works with the organization’s board of directors on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

As a student, Cheatham participated in the Shepherd Program for the Interdisciplinary Study of Poverty and Human Capability and was a charter member and vice-president of the Tau Omega chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. As an alumna, she has served on W&L’s Alumni Association Board of Directors, the Commission on Institutional History and Community, reunion committees, and the Shepherd Advisory Board, and currently serves as president of W&L’s Washington, D.C. Alumni Chapter.

Cheatham received an M.A. from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, focusing on Latin American Studies and Government. Her career has spanned the nonprofit sector with work in politics, human rights and program management at scientific associations, most recently serving as director of industry research and education, and as senior manager of education at BIO, and as professional development and global programs manager at the Society for Neuroscience.

Cheatham lives in Washington, D.C.

Kelly Golub ’93 graduated from W&L, cum laude, with a B.A. in Art History and holds an M.A.

in Education from Stanford University. She is co-founder, with husband Greg Golub ‘94, of Sequoia, a company committed to helping clients tie their benefits, compensation and overall people investment to business results, and serves as an adviser to Canopy, which connects the Golubs’ efforts across several companies and philanthropic endeavors.

As a student, Golub was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma, a co-chair of the Student Recruitment Committee, chair of the Maryland delegation at Mock Convention, and a member of Omicron Delta Kappa. As an alumna, she has served as a class agent and conducted alumni admissions interviews in the San Francisco Bay Area. Most recently, she and her husband, through the Golub Family Foundation, established the Golub Family Endowment for Student Mental Health and Well-being at W&L to support student access to online mental health and wellness services as a supplement to the University Counseling Center.

In her local community, Golub has held several volunteer leadership roles in development for the Woodside School Foundation and Menlo School in Atherton, California, and founded the Sequoia Impact Program through which Sequoia team members work to be of service in the communities where their offices are located around the world.

The Golubs reside in Woodside, CA, and have three daughters: Sophie, a student at Brown University, C.C., a student at W&L, and Vivian, a high school sophomore.

Jim Lawson ’77 graduated from W&L, Beta Gamma Sigma and magna cum laude, with a B.S. in accounting. In 1996, Lawson co-founded Lincoln Partners, now Lincoln International, a global mid-market investment bank that today has 24 offices in 15 countries.

At W&L, Lawson was a member of the tennis team, and served on the 1976 Mock Convention leadership team, on University Council, and on the student-faculty athletic committee, and was treasurer of Lambda Chi. He has been actively involved as an alumnus by annually recruiting W&L graduates since 1999, serving on the Williams School Board of Advisors, serving as a class agent, and co-chairing his 45th reunion.

Following graduation, Lawson worked for Peat Marwick Mitchell, now KPMG, and passed the CPA exam. He received an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth Graduate School of Business, after which he joined PaineWebber, now UBS, as an investment banker, first in New York and then in Chicago. He previously served as an independent director at both Skyline Funds and Bell Industries, Inc.

Lawson is active in his community and church. He and his wife, Wende Fox, reside in Chicago. They have two children, Grace Anne and James (W&L Class of 2021).