Interim Chancellor Jane Close Conoley

UC President Mark Yudof named Jane Close Conoley interim chancellor of UC Riverside on Nov. 20, 2012, after the eighth chancellor, Timothy P. White, announced he would step down to become the chancellor of the California State University system. Like White, Conoley is a first generation college student.

Conoley has been dean and professor of Counseling, Clinical and School Psychology at UC Santa Barbara Gevirtz School of Graduate Education since January 2006. She plans to return to that post when a permanent UCR chancellor has been selected.

She spent the previous 10 years as dean of the College of Education and Human Development at Texas A&M University, where she was a professor of educational psychology.

Conoley was the Edith S. Greer Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where she chaired the Department of Educational Psychology from 1989 to 1994 and served as associate dean for research and curriculum at the university’s Teachers College from 1994 to 1996. She was a professor of psychology at Syracuse University and Texas Woman's University between 1976 and 1984

Conoley earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology cum laude, at the College of New Rochelle. She earned a Ph.D., at the University of Texas at Austin, Department of Educational Psychology with a minor in Biological Systems Theory and Analysis.

Conoley has authored or edited 21 books and written more than 80 chapters and referenced journal articles. Her areas of primary interest are interventions with children with disabilities – especially serious emotional disturbance and aggressive children and youth – and family intervention.

She is also well known for her work in psychological and educational measurement, and served for 12 years as an editor of the Mental Measurements Yearbook series published by the Buros Institute of Mental Measurements.

She has been the principle investigator on several federally funded projects aimed at developing better school-based approaches to helping children with emotional and behavioral disorders. She also has taken the lead on federal and state initiatives to improve teacher quality especially in science and mathematics education. She has extensive involvement in working with schools to increase children’s engagement and achievement. She has presented papers and lectured throughout the world to educational and mental health professionals on these topics most recently in Hong Kong and Singapore.

Conoley has won university-level teaching and professional organization service awards and has been active in leadership in the American Psychological Association. She has served on national boards, most recently, the College Board and the American Psychological Association, where she worked on teacher recruitment and the effects of zero tolerance policies respectively. She has also served on the executive committees of the national education deans' associations. She was selected to chair the University of California Science and Mathematics Initiative. At Santa Barbara, she worked to develop new links with the regional community colleges and deep relationships on campus among the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education and UCSB’s science and engineering departments and center.

Much of Conoley’s experience has taken place at land-grant universities where she has learned a deep appreciation for their missions combining ground breaking research and public service.

Conoley is married to Collie Conoley, a professor in the Department of Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology at UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz School, and Director of the Carol Ackerman Positive Psychology Clinic. Collie and Jane have three grown children.

Jane Conoley interim chancellor on intolerance

“We may have once thought that being bullied or harassed was a rite of passage to be endured by all children. We now know that all those involved with intolerance and aggression are scarred by the experiences. These are not just personal hurts; they represent a failure of community to nurture all members with care and respect.”