NJIT Announces Appointment of Inaugural Director of Cyberpsychology

Oct. 28, 2019 — NJIT’s College of Science and Liberal Arts has announced that Julie Ancis will join the Department of Humanities as professor of psychology and director of cyberpsychology.

Ancis — who holds fellow status in two divisions within the American Psychological Association (APA) through her scholarly contributions that span nearly 25 years in the field of psychology — comes to NJIT from her role as associate vice president of institute diversity, equity and inclusion at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she has been responsible for advancing the university’s goals focused on diversity, equity and collaboration.

Beginning spring 2020, Ancis will serve in an advisory capacity to NJIT’s Department of Humanities. She will assume her full-time role on campus as director of cyberpsychology in fall 2020. In her director role, Ancis will oversee and develop further New Jersey’s first academic efforts in the area of cyberpsychology, which will serve as NJIT’s inaugural programmatic foray into the social and behavioral sciences.

“I look forward to joining NJIT and bringing my background and experience to this role,” Ancis said. “Cyberpsychology is a burgeoning field and there are endless possibilities for engagement, collaboration and innovation from the impact of social media on well-being to virtual reality applications. I am excited about working with NJIT colleagues to continue to move the field forward.”

Ancis, an internationally recognized scholar on the subject of multiculturalism, has authored several publications representing the crossroads between diversity and technology and was one of the first in the field of psychology to write about teaching cultural competence online. Her co-authored book entitled, “Promoting Student Learning and Student Development at a Distance: Student Affairs Concepts and Practices for Televised Instruction and Other Forms of Distance Learning” (University Press) was one of the first to address distance learning in the area of student affairs. 

She is the author of four books, including “Gender, Psychology and Justice: The Mental Health of Women and Girls in the Legal System” (NYU Press) and “Culturally Responsive Interventions: Innovative Approaches to Working with Diverse Populations” (Taylor and Francis), as well as over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and technical and conference reports.

In her role at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Ancis has engaged in interdisciplinary work serving as principal investigator (PI) for a $3.8 million U.S. Department of Education First in the World Grant focused on the impact of assistive technology on the academic success of racial and ethnic minority students with print-related disabilities enrolled in 53 U.S. minority-serving institutions. She also served as co-PI on a $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation’s Revolutionizing Engineering and Computer Science Departments program, focused on inclusion and belonging through the development of curriculum interventions, inclusive pedagogy and related research.

Prior to her current position, Ancis was a professor in the Department of Counseling and Psychological Services at Georgia State University, specializing in research on racial and gender attitudes, multicultural competence, the perceptions and experiences of diverse students on university campuses and women’s legal experiences. 

Ancis has served in many national leadership positions including editorial boards, chair of the APA’s Division 17 (Counseling Psychology), Section on the Advancement of Women; chair of the Diversity Section of the APA Task Force for the Development of Guidelines for Psychological Practice with Girls and Women; and legal and legislative representative of the Georgia Psychological Association’s (GPA) Council on Women and Girls, the GPA’s Academic Affairs Committee and the Diversity and Inclusion Board of the Technology Association of Georgia.