Francine Conway

Dr. Francine Conway is Chancellor-Provost of Rutgers University–New Brunswick, a top 20 public university (U.S. News and World Report) with more than 20 programs and schools in the nation’s top 20; a $907.8 million research portfolio that transcends the sciences, humanities, and arts; and a proud culture of diversity across its more than 40,000 students and 10,000 faculty and staff. She has served as Rutgers–New Brunswick’s inaugural Chancellor-Provost—a position that combines the traditional roles of the previously existing chancellor and provost—since July 2021, having previously served as Provost. She also serves as Distinguished Professor in the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, which she served as Dean from 2016 to 2020. Chancellor-Provost Conway is also an internationally recognized clinical psychologist for her work in child psychopathology. 

As Chancellor-Provost, Francine led the creation of—and is now leading the implementation of—the Rutgers–New Brunswick Academic Master Plan, a comprehensive blueprint for the institution’s future based on Four Pillars of Excellence: Scholarly Leadership, Innovative Research, Student Success, and Community Engagement. The Academic Master Plan implementation includes bold new initiatives that will reimagine the student experience from enrollment to retention and graduation; establish a public health and prevention-focused approach to wellness for students, faculty, and staff; and create interdisciplinary scholarly communities to focus the institution’s research, economic, and service engagement to benefit the common good. As Provost, Francine embraced a commitment to building a diverse and inclusive environment for faculty, staff, and students, including recruitment of faculty from underrepresented demographics, and ensuring pathways to success for talented students from diverse and at-risk backgrounds.

Chancellor-Provost Conway is a past president of the National Council of Schools and Programs of Professional Psychology, where she led a campaign to enhance the curriculum in preparing psychologists to lead social change. She has also represented Rutgers University in two Big Ten academic leadership programs. She is a graduate of Cornell University and Columbia University and earned her doctoral degree from the Gordon F. Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies at Adelphi University, where she later served on the faculty for 13 years.