Christie K. Chung, PhD

Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs

As Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Palo Alto University, Dr. Christie K. Chung serves as the University’s chief academic officer, providing strategic leadership for the full academic enterprise and educational experience. Her portfolio encompasses academic programs and student learning; faculty success and development; research and innovation; assessment and institutional effectiveness; academic technology; and PAU’s clinical training and service clinics.
In this role, she works across the University to advance academic excellence, strengthen the faculty and student experience, foster research and innovation, and ensure that PAU’s academic and clinical programs translate its mission into meaningful impact. She also leads institution-wide efforts to thoughtfully integrate emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, into education, research, and university operations while keeping human understanding at the center.

Previously serving as Executive Director of The Mills Institute at Northeastern University, Dr. Chung has built transformative programming in teaching, advocacy, and research that expands access to educational and leadership opportunities. She has also held senior leadership roles as Associate Provost for Student Success and Undergraduate Education, Associate Dean for Research, Scholarship, and Partnerships, and Special Advisor for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Across these roles, she has led initiatives in academic innovation, experiential learning, faculty development, and external partnerships throughout Northeastern’s global network.

Dr. Chung’s research explores emotional memory, cognitive aging, and cross-cultural cognition, with an emerging emphasis on bridging cognitive science and artificial intelligence. Her work examines how the mind processes emotion and memory across cultures and the lifespan, and has been widely published and presented internationally. Her TEDx keynote, Bridging Minds and Machines: Advancing AI Innovations through Cognitive Science, underscores her vision for responsible innovation that centers humanity.

A dedicated scholar, mentor, and leadership advisor, Dr. Chung has directed the Mills Cognition Lab and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Integrated Social Sciences. She brings her expertise in leadership, cognition, education, and human development to advisory roles with Mixbook, ACAD for Leaders, and PacBay School. She also provides executive coaching and leadership development for higher education professionals, helping leaders strengthen their capacity, navigate change, and create meaningful and sustainable impact.

Dr. Chung has been recognized for her leadership and contributions to the field with numerous honors, including receiving the prestigious Chang-Lin Tien Leadership in Education Award in 2026, being named a KRON4 TV Remarkable Woman in 2025, and inducted as an ACAD Fellow in 2022. Her research and commentary have been featured in The Boston Globe and other national media outlets.

Dr. Chung earned her Honours B.Sc. in Psychology (Distinction, Phi Beta Kappa) from the University of Toronto, followed by her M.A. and Ph.D. in Applied Cognitive Psychology from Claremont Graduate University, and completed postdoctoral training in Behavioral Neuroscience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

New Book: Inspire to Lead
TEDx keynote: Bridging Minds and Machines