Education as Liberation
BY R.L. WITTER
Chancellor Tonya Smith-Jackson Brings Vision and Vitality to RU–N
Newly appointed Rutgers University–Newark (RU-N) Chancellor Tonya Smith-Jackson comes to RU-N with a wealth of experience, knowledge, and ideas. A wunderkind with an impressive educational background, Smith-Jackson is ready to share her talents and bring ideas and improvements to fruition.
She comes by her belief in hard work and love of education honestly. “The idea of education as liberation was the thought behind my parents’ belief in lifelong learning. There is a certain process of self-liberation when we gain more knowledge and understanding of ourselves and the world,” she explained. “You develop a mindset that allows you to break free of some barriers in life… I say not all, because some barriers are removed only by inherited privilege; but most barriers can be removed by working hard mentally to master as much as you can, and then using knowledge as a tool to move forward in life.”
Smith-Jackson took advantage of the head start her parents’ belief in education and in their children gave her. She and her five siblings were taught reading, writing, and math by the time they were four years old. “I recall my mother meeting with a principal when we lived in the Philippine Islands, and she convinced the principal that kindergarten would be a waste of time. So I was tested and skipped to the first grade. But I was expected to keep up, regardless of my age,” she said. Her formal education was supplemented by traveling and interacting with people from all over the world. “My father was in the Air Force as a career enlisted airman, so we moved quite a bit. By the time I was in high school, I had mastered the art of adapting to new environments and figuring out what and how to learn anytime, anywhere, and with anyone.”
Growing up, Smith-Jackson aspired to become a medical doctor. “I believed I would be good at it because I wanted to end certain types of suffering. At 12, I had my mind set on being a doctor and, more so, a healer. Then I actually honed in on becoming a psychiatrist.” While attending the prestigious North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, she worked in a lab at Duke University that studied the effects of certain therapies on persistent clinical depression. It was then that she saw the possibilities of a different type of medical career and decided to attend UNC–Chapel Hill and declare her major as pre-med and biology.
However, as in all great origin stories, things didn’t go as smoothly as hoped; there had to be a bump or twist in the plan. The future RU-N chancellor found she had lost her love of chemistry, an integral part of medicine. “I lost my love of chemistry, and the thought of going deeper into chemistry just to be a psychiatrist led me to change my major—three times!” she shared. While chemistry may have won that battle, the war is not yet over, as Smith-Jackson never backs down from a challenge, saying, “I still don’t know why chemistry makes me sweat, but I definitely plan to start over again in chemistry when I retire! It will be mastered at some point in my life.”
During her senior year, a favorite professor, Dr. Dave Eckerman, introduced her to engineering psychology and its role in industrial and systems engineering. Despite graduate school not being part of her plan, she ended up at North Carolina State University in an interdisciplinary program that led to her specialty of human factors and ergonomics, which combines psychology and engineering. “Those of us in human factors hold steadfast to the value of designing in people-centric ways, whether we are developing mobile phones, buildings, computer applications, desks, chairs, or city transportation routes. Our practices and knowledge base rest on the inclusion of human attributes and capabilities across the spectrum—mental, physical, psychosocial, etc. Human factors is actually the best area of specialty for anyone who is passionate about many subjects. It is truly interdisciplinary, forcing you to think at the intersections of meaning.”
The Chancellor comes to RU-N with extensive academic leadership experience, including time as a program director at the National Science Foundation; provost and executive vice chancellor for Academic Affairs at North Carolina A&T State University; professor and chair of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering; and founder/director of the Human Factors Analytics Laboratory and the Laboratory for Cyber-Human Analytics Research for the Internet of Things (CHARIoT).
Dr. Smith-Jackson’s faculty positions in academia include universities and community colleges in New York, North Carolina, Virginia, and Germany. She is also a fellow in two professional societies: the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers and the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.
“RU-N has been an enviable anchor institution. RU-N has developed some of the strongest university–community collaboration systems I have ever seen in my 30 years in higher education, which also included stints as an engineer, social worker, HIV/AIDS case manager, and community resources manager. I can tell you that this university is getting it right,” she said of her professional home. “One example is the Newark Public Safety Collaborative, which I had the honor of visiting and engaging in a couple of weeks ago. This is a collaborative comprising professors/researchers, student interns, police, human services leaders, community support leaders, and city officials who come together to co-design solutions using data in the form of numbers, stories, and observations. I am in awe of the sophisticated, impactful collective work they are doing. There is mutual respect for expertise across the different agencies and a willingness to think creatively and act in ways that best fit community needs.”
Smith-Jackson cited Express Newark as another example of the impressive work at RU-N. “This is a creative studio where those living in the community partner with us to capture the human imagination through visual art, exhibits, digital storytelling, and performative expressions. I was able to observe them this summer in a youth program, which not only advanced talent around art and expression, but gave young people an outlet to manage the psychological changes and challenges they face each day,” she said. “Finally, I will point out that we have a community-engaged and empowered African-American Brain Health Initiative and an Aging and Brain Health Alliance. I was able to meet real partners in the community who work with neuroscientists and other specialists to understand Alzheimer’s and brain health from both a medical and authentic human perspective. Again, there are so many examples. RU-N is an anchor, community-embedded university that, by demonstration and evidence, lives its commitment to advancing the human condition together with our community partners. No other university does it as well as we do, and we can do even more.”
Her experience teaching overseas in Germany has also informed her ideas for furthering the successes at RU-N. “Most of my students in Germany (Darmstadt, Goeppingen, and Schwabisch Gmünd) were soldiers enlisted in the U.S. Army (and some Air Force), and they were fully committed to serving our nation. Some were the spouses, partners, and children of soldiers. Due to Desert Storm, we had to be agile in the classroom, since some of our students were being deployed while others were assigned schedules that required them to miss class.” Smith-Jackson continued, “We found ways to get information out to them and count their assignments and attendance so they would not have to withdraw. We learned to take the university to the students, rather than depend on them coming to us. This led me to appreciate online education, which is now much more popular. RU-N will expand its online reach, because if we truly believe in access, we will need to move toward providing ways to take the teaching, learning, and research to students. Now that we have students who are tech-savvy and have access to internet and wireless technologies, we are in good shape to scale up our online reach.”
When asked if she had any advice for RU-N students, the Chancellor was thoughtful as she reached back to her parents’ teachings. “I urge students to understand that pursuing a degree is an act of liberation—a gift to the self that will reap so many benefits later on, including socioeconomic growth, social capital, and a higher quality of life. This should be taken seriously. But, beyond the academic side, everything is a learning experience when you are privileged to attend a college or university. Attend classes, but also attend other places and spaces where learning happens, including in the community.”
She continued, “You will waste your time if you seek only an ivory-tower experience at RU-N. We are not that kind of university. The world around you has much to share, so be a good student of the world. RU-N offers a journey to transformation and will partner with students to scale up their next level of greatness so they can open and walk through doors that neither they nor their ancestors imagined for themselves. But this requires students to commit to the social contract, the work ethic, and the partnership. When that happens, all else will fall into place. I often give students the advice my parents gave us: ‘Work hard, play hard, learn hard.’ Working, playing, and learning are all important.”
When she’s not at RU-N, Smith-Jackson enjoys traveling back to North Carolina to spend time with her family. “My grandkids are fun. I am a much better grandparent than I was as a parent,” she shared. “When my father retired from the Air Force, he and my mother chose to return to farming. My mother is 84 years old and still grows some crops.” Remaining equally active away from work as she is on campus, Smith-Jackson enjoys all things nature and finds peace in it.
“One of my other favorite things to do is play basketball; I was a basketball player from the sixth grade to the twelfth grade. I am older, of course, so the game is more ‘slow break’ than ‘fast break.’ I love playing and watching basketball, especially college ball and the WNBA.” While she’s still getting acquainted with and finding her way around, Smith-Jackson is ready to jump into volunteering. “I already serve on national boards, but I would like to engage on a community level right here in Newark in my ‘spare time.’”
Welcome to New Jersey, Newark, and RU-N, Madame Chancellor. Your arrival signals more than a new chapter—it opens the door to transformation, innovation, and lasting impact at RU-N and beyond.
