Dr. Jill Kolesar serves as Dean and Professor and the Jean M. Schmidt Chair in Drug Discovery at the University of Iowa College of Pharmacy. She received her Doctor of Pharmacy degree at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, where she also completed a residency and fellowship in oncology. Previously, she was Professor of Pharmacy at the University of Kentucky and the Dr. Michael E. Karpf Endowed Chair in Precision Medicine at Markey Cancer Center. She also held an administrative position at the Markey Cancer Center as the co-leader of the Translational Oncology (TO) Research Program. 

Kolesar's research focuses on precision medicine and oncology drug development. She has authored more than 400 abstracts, research articles, and book chapters, and as a principal investigator has received more than $25 million in research funding from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), ARPA-H, the American Cancer Society, and other sources. In addition, she has 9 patents or patents pending and has founded two start-up companies, Helix Diagnostics and VesiCure Technologies, based on technologies developed in her laboratory.