Chancellor, Rutgers University- Newark
Nancy Cantor is Chancellor of Rutgers University – Newark. A distinguished leader in higher education, she is recognized nationally and internationally as an advocate for leveraging diversity in all its dimensions and re-emphasizing the role of universities as anchor institutions in their communities, especially by forging diverse, cross-sector collaboratives and leveraging publicly engaged scholarship to advance racial equity and equitable growth. As a social psychologist, she has focused on understanding how individuals perceive and think about their social worlds, pursue personal goals, and regulate their behavior to adapt to life’s most challenging social environments. A fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and member of the National Academy of Medicine, she previously led Syracuse University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and was provost at the University of Michigan, where she was closely involved in the defense of affirmative action in 2003 Supreme Court cases Grutter and Gratz. She is co-editor with Earl Lewis of the Our Compelling Interests book series published by the Princeton University Press. She has received the Ernest L. Boyer Award from New American Colleges & Universities, the Anchor Institutions Task Force Community Engagement Award, the Robert Zemsky Medal for Innovation in Higher Education; American Council on Education Reginald Wilson Diversity Leadership Award; Frank W. Hale, Jr. Diversity Leadership Award from the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education; Anti-Defamation League Woman of Achievement Award; National Council for Research on Women Making a Difference for Women Award; and 2008 Carnegie Corporation Academic Leadership Award, one of higher education’s highest honors.