Tonya Smith-Jackson was appointed interim provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at North Carolina A&T State University. Dr. Smith Jackson has worked for North Carolina A&T since 2013, most recently as senior vice provost for academic affairs. She originally joined A&T as a professor and chair of the department of industrial and systems engineering and founder/director of the Human Factors Analytics Laboratory. Earlier in her career, Dr. Smith-Jackson was a professor of industrial and systems engineering at Virginia Tech.
For the 2018-19 academic year, Dr. Smith-Jackson took a leave to serve as program director of the Computer and Information Science and Engineering Directorate, Information and Intelligent Systems Division in the Cyber-Human Systems Program of the National Science Foundation.
Harold L. Martin Sr., chancellor of North Carolina A&T State University, stated that “Dr. Smith-Jackson’s deep regard for this university, her extensive leadership experience in academia, her keen understanding of strategic focus and priorities for the university and her boundless energy make her the ideal candidate to lead the Division of Academic Affairs through this period. I look forward to working with her to continue our excellent progress in realizing our many university priorities, particularly those around student success.”
Dr. Smith-Jackson earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She holds a master’s degree in psychology and industrial engineering and a Ph.D. in psychology/ergonomics from North Carolina State University.