Tonya Smith-Jackson has been named chancellor of Rutgers University-Newark. She will begin her appointment on August 1.
The Newark campus of Rutgers University enrolls over 7,400 undergraduate students and nearly 3,400 graduate students. Women represent 53 percent of the undergraduate student body.
Currently, Dr. Smith-Jackson is provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs at North Carolina A&T State University. She first joined the the university in 2013 as chair of the department of industrial and systems engineering. Earlier in her career, she spent 14 years on the faculty of Virginia Tech. She also had a stint as program director of the Cyber-Humans-Systems Program at the National Science Foundation.
“My success is not possible without chancellors, presidents, and leaders I’ve learned from, and each institution’s commitment to scholarship, innovation, academic excellence, community engagement, and providing opportunities for all — which is exactly what inspired me to seek out this opportunity to lead Rutgers-Newark,” said Dr. Smith-Jackson. “It’s an incredible honor to join this esteemed institution, and I look forward to working together in shaping a future that honors institutional legacy and embraces bold new opportunities on the horizon.”
Dr. Smith-Jackson is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she majored in psychology. She holds a master’s degree in interdisciplinary psychology and industrial engineering and a Ph.D. in psychology and ergonomics from North Carolina State University.