Meet the Chancellor

Rutgers University–Newark Chancellor Tonya Smith-Jackson, PhD, CPE, is an industrial and systems engineer with extensive academic leadership experience, including time as a program director at the National Science Foundation. Most recently, Dr. Smith-Jackson served as the Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at North Carolina A&T State University. Prior to being appointed Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor, Dr. Smith-Jackson served as a professor and chair of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering and as the founder/director of the Human Factors Analytics Laboratory and the Cyber-Human Analytics Laboratory for the Internet of Things (CHARIoT).

Dr. Smith-Jackson earned an interdisciplinary MS in Psychology and Industrial Engineering and a PhD in Psychology/Ergonomics from North Carolina State University. She earned a BA in Psychology from the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill and graduated from the inaugural class of the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics. Dr. Smith-Jackson’s faculty positions in academia include universities and community colleges in New York, North Carolina, Virginia, and Germany. She is a fellow in two professional societies: the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers and the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

Dr. Smith-Jackson has worked in the industry and government sectors as well, serving as a usability engineer for IBM and Ericsson Mobile Communications (now Sony-Ericsson), and as an expert witness in systems safety, usability, and accident analysis litigation. She has served as a manager in county, state, and federal government agencies, including the European Command (Germany), county public health, and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Dr. Smith-Jackson has earned numerous awards and recognition for excellence and innovation in teaching, research, advising, diversity and inclusion, and outreach to communities. While at North Carolina A&T State University, Dr. Smith-Jackson was recognized with a university women’s leadership award, interdisciplinary collaboration awards, and a Command General’s Award for advancing women in the U.S. Army Command. Governor Roy Cooper appointed Dr. Smith-Jackson to the North Carolina Board of Science, Technology and Innovation in 2020 and the Performance Management Advisory Committee in 2021.

She continues to champion academic excellence, inclusion, equity, diversity, and belonging.