Christie Chung, PhD

Empowering leaders and executives to successfully navigate change by turning challenges into opportunities, and to ascend the leadership ladder by providing unique perspectives to problem solving and personal branding. 

Christie Chung, PhD, is an Executive Director (aka CEO or Dean) of a multidisciplinary institute at an R1 University. Apart from this executive role, she has also served as Associate Provost, Associate Dean, and many other key Chair and leadership positions at both R1 and liberals arts college settings. Christie has over 1.5 decades of experience as a cognitive psychology faculty and researcher, is a TEDx speaker, and an accomplished author in cognitive aging and cross-cultural cognition. Christie also has extensive experience in navigating complex institutional changes, especially ones involving institutional restructuring and mergers.  

In her coaching practice, Christie empowers leaders and executives to turn challenges into opportunities for growth and advancement. Christie is skilled in personal branding principles, which are critical as leaders position themselves for job opportunities and promotions. Christie inspires academics to impact the world through their leadership while championing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion/Antiracism/Belonging (DEIAB) principles. Christie has experience in supervising programs and grant-funded initiatives, fundraising, mediating conflict, and has been a key leader in supporting the campus community during an institutional merger as Associate Provost. 

Christie is passionate about supporting all academic leaders and executives, and is skilled in encouraging women, BIPOC, and international higher education scholars to leverage their unique cultural diversity in achieving success at work. For example, see her Academic Impressions trainings on “Leveraging Cultural Diversity to Accelerate Leadership Success”. Christie has extensive experience in leading the appointment, promotion, and tenure process in higher education, has served as an executive leader in student success and undergraduate education, and is now leading the effort in expanding the research enterprise at her college. With her international upbringing and cross-cultural cognitive research expertise, Christie is equipped to support international scholars and BIPOC individuals in the academy. As a psychologist with experience in institutional partnerships and mergers, she is also skilled in providing change management advice to faculty and academic leaders who are going through institutional transitions and professional career changes, e.g., faculty moving into to administrative roles.  

Christie is currently the Executive Director of The Mills Institute at Northeastern University, as well as the Associate Dean for Research, Scholarship, and Partnerships at Mills College at Northeastern University. She also serves as the Special Advisor on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to the Senior Vice President. She previously served as the Associate Provost for Student Success and Undergraduate Education and Chair of the Appointment, Promotion, and Tenure Committee at Mills College. She received her Honours B.Sc. degree with distinction as a Psychology Specialist from University of Toronto, her M.A. and Ph.D. in Applied Cognitive Psychology from Claremont Graduate University, and her postdoctoral training in Behavioral Neuroscience at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She is an international alumna of Phi Beta Kappa, a proud alumna of the HERS Leadership Institute, a member of the Council of Chinese American Deans and Presidents, an executive in The Partnership, Inc. Next Generation Executive program, and an active member in the Psychonomic Society. She was selected as an American Conference of Academic Deans (ACAD) Fellow in 2022-2023.