Elise Cappella

Elise Cappella is Vice Provost for University-wide Initiatives and Graduate Education. In this role, she develops and supports strategic University-wide initiatives. This work is critical to building the interdisciplinary, multi-school, and multi-location research and educational programs that NYU faculty and students have called for and that will enable the University to take full advantage of its unique scale, breadth, and global network. She also oversees graduate academic affairs, including co-chairing the Graduate Program Committee and working with programs like NYU x NYU, which creates bridges between undergraduate and graduate programs for students across the schools.

As NYU Steinhardt’s Vice Dean for Research, Dr. Cappella built interconnections among eight research centers and hundreds of faculty and students to conduct high-quality, high-impact research in education, social sciences, health and human development, the arts and humanities. As Director of the Institute of Human Development and Social Change, an interdisciplinary research center, Dr. Cappella advanced research on solutions to inequality in local and global contexts, strengthening the funding opportunities and support for 70 faculty affiliates and their research staff and students. She is a founding faculty mentor in Applied Psychology’s Q.U.E.S.T. program, which expands opportunities for underrepresented students to get into graduate programs in applied psychology and related fields.

Dr. Cappella is professor of Applied Psychology and co-Director of NYU’s Institute of Education Sciences (IES) Predoctoral Interdisciplinary Research Training (PIRT) program dedicated to training the next generation of education scholars and leaders. Her research focuses on school contexts of learning and mental health for students facing inequitable education opportunities due to economic marginalization, structural discrimination, and/or emotional and behavioral challenges. Dr. Cappella has authored over 80 journal articles and book chapters, and has secured funding from the Institute of Education Sciences, National Institute of Mental Health, Fund for Public Schools, Foundation for Child Development, and Spencer Foundation.

Dr. Cappella is a former 4th grade teacher with a bachelor’s degree from Yale University and a doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley.

Assistant: Sabrina Sanchez
ss14858@nyu.edu