Tonya Smith-Jackson, the current provost and vice chancellor at a land grant research university in North Carolina, was named Thursday to be the next Chancellor of Rutgers University-Newark.
Her appointment, which was unanimously approved by the Rutgers Board of Governors, was announced jointly by outgoing Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway and incoming President William F. Tate IV.
At the virtual meeting, Holloway said the search committee had an unusually easy time coming to an agreement on Smith-Jackson as their pick.
âYou are coming into this community with a wave of enthusiasm for those who have met you,â Holloway said addressing Smith-Jackson who joined the meeting after she was approved.
Smith-Jackson is currently the provost and executive vice chancellor for Academic Affairs at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (NC A&T), a position sheâs held for over three years.
She described herself as a âfirst generation, low income student.â
âMy lived experience taught me that higher education was not necessarily designed for everyone,â Smith-Jackson said.
âItâs our challenge to continue to reimagine and redesign these important ecosystems that we build around the learners that we serve so that everybody can be successful,â she said.
She holds a doctorate in psychology and ergonomics and an interdisciplinary master of science degree in psychology and industrial engineering.
Some of Smith-Jacksonâs recent scholarship focused on providing information technology training and job support to people who were previously incarcerated. Sheâs also written about the importance of exposing undergrads to research in STEM fields.
In her current role, Smith-Jackson has led the creation of three new doctoral programs, the stateâs first bachelorâs degree program in artificial intelligence and dramatic increases in both research staff and graduate assistants at NC A&T, the nationâs largest HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities), according to Rutgers.
Under the terms of her deal with Rutgers, she will receive:
- $515,000 a year in base pay.
- an additional $25,000-$77,000 per year in incentive compensation. In her first year this amount will be at least $51,500.
- $30,000 annually in deferred compensation.
During her remarks, the new chancellor thanked search committee chairs Rutgers-Newark professor Salamishah Tillet and executive vice president for academic affairs at Rutgers Prabhas Moghe.
âIâm sure theyâre practicing something around full recovery at this point now that the search is concluding,â Smith-Jackson said.
The committee started the search process with close to thirty listening sessions, Tillet said.
Undergraduates, faculty, administrators, community members and Newark mayor, Ras Baraka, shared âtheir expectations, their hopes, their concerns, and their shared valuesâ in the sessions, Tillet said.
âIt was a really thoughtful and robust process to understand not only what the role of the chancellor is, but how this new chancellor could continue to build on the kind of rich legacy of former Chancellor Nancy Cantor,â Tillet said.
Tillet is a Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times writer, as well as the Henry Rutgers Professor of African American Studies and Creative Writing. Sheâs also the Executive Director of Express Newark a center for art, design, and digital storytelling.
Many faculty and community members were deeply upset when President Holloway chose not to renew the previous Chancellor Nancy Cantorâs contract in 2024. Cantor had been in the role for ten years.
One letter addressed to Holloway and signed by about 50 members of the Rutgers Law School in Newark expressed confusion and despair over Hollowayâs unexpected decision.
âWe are at a loss as to why, amid all of the challenges facing Rutgers and higher education generally, you would choose to embark on a costly and disruptive leadership transition to address a problem that, by your own telling, is no problem at all.â
Tillet said building trust and being transparent was an especially important part of the search process, given the strong feelings people had about the ending of Cantorâs term.
Like Holloway, Tillet said she is very excited about the committeeâs decision.
âDr. Tonya Smith-Jackson is one of the most exceptional administrators and scholars that Iâve come across,â Tillet said.