Cristina Baciu
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Mail code: 3506Campus: Tempe
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Cristina Baciu is a higher education leader and mentoring expert, currently serving as the Assistant Director of Research at the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. Before joining the W.P. Carey School of Business in January of 2024, Cristina worked as an administrative director and research program manager, collaborating with interdisciplinary teams at the intersection of cooperation and cancer evolution research at ASU.
Both practice and research-wise, Cristina is interested in mentoring undergraduate college students, barriers to students’ success, and the intersections between technology and higher education. She is the Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Arizona Cancer Evolution Center (ACE) Scholars Program and of the Cooperation Scholars Program. She is also an advisor for various other mentoring initiatives, such as the Biocomputing Scholars Program and the Future of Being Human Undergraduate Initiative. Learn more about Cristina by visiting her website.
Before joining Arizona State University in 2016, Cristina worked as an accountant and later as a luxury hospitality executive at Carol Parc Hotel in Bucharest, Romania, which was named one of the best 136 hotels in the world (Conde Nast Traveler, 2008). One of Cristina's major accomplishments in her roles there was to create and chair the new strategic direction program to improve the overall rating. As a result, the hotel was named “Romania’s Leading Hotel” in 2012 by World Travel Award and received the 2013 and 2014 Travelers’ Choice Designation by TripAdvisor.
Selected Service and Community Involvement
- 2022-2023, Treasurer, International Society for Evolution, Ecology, and Cancer
- 2022-2023, Working Group & Founding Member, Navigating Cancer with Science and Art, Cancer Systems Biology Consortium, National Institutes of Health
- 2021-2022, Working Group Member, Impactful Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activities, Strategic Roadmap - Office of the President, Northern Arizona University
- 2021-2022, Representative, College of Education at the Graduate Student Government, Northern Arizona University
- 2021, Member, Career Readiness-Experiential Learning Working Group, School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University
- 2020, Panelist, Young Alumni Panel, Illinois Institute of Technology
- 2019, Invited Judge, Undergraduate Research Day, Lewis College of Human Sciences, Illinois Institute of Technology
- 2015-2017, Administrative Advisor, Volunteer, Collaborative Replications and Education Project
- 2015-2016, President of Psi Chi, The International Honors Society in Psychology (Illinois Institute of Technology chapter)
Selected Awards and Honors
- 2022, 2021 Graduate Student Government Award, Northern Arizona University
- 2021, Love of Learning Award, The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi
- 2020, Leadership Award Finalist, Annual Knowledge Enterprise Employee Awards, Arizona State University
- 2016, Undergraduate Commencement Speaker, Lewis College of Human Sciences, Illinois Institute of Technology
- 2016, Student Leadership Award, Lewis College of Human Sciences and Letters, Illinois Institute of Technology
- 2015, CREP Research Award, Center for Open Science
Ed.D., Educational Leadership, Northern Arizona University, 2022. Dissertation: Understanding e-mentoring: a quantitative study of online undergraduate students.
B.S., Psychology, Illinois Institute of Technology, 2016.
B.S., Economics, Romanian University of Sciences and Arts Gheorghe Cristea, 2012.
Because of her diverse education and experience, Cristina is interested in a wide range of interdisciplinary topics and in integrating knowledge across disciplines (e.g., psychology, cancer evolution, and mentoring). Specific research interests include:
- Mentoring in higher education (undergraduate and graduate students); technology and higher education; barriers to students’ success such as food and housing insecurity.
- The language of cancer - how do we talk, or not, about cancer and what does that mean for various patients, families, and physicians.
- Science communication and outreach - how do we communicate clearly about our research findings to reach and benefit a broader audience and the general public.
Cristina is collaborating with the following interdisciplinary groups at ASU:
1. Arizona Cancer Evolution Center, where she co-founded and is co-directing the ACE Scholars Program, an integrated training approach for undergraduate students. Cristina is also the research program manager of the center, managing grants, organizing events, and participating in science communication and outreach events.
2. The Interdisciplinary Cooperation Initiative, where she serves as the administrative director.
3. The Cooperation Science Network and the Cooperation Lab, where she co-founded and is co-directing the Cooperation Scholars Program.
- Baciu, C. & Brazelton, B. (2022). Examining e-mentoring: factors that influence online undergraduate students' perceptions of e-Mentoring. The Chronicle of Mentoring & Coaching, Vol. 6, Special Issue 15.
- Baciu, C., Compton, Z. & Maley, C. (2022). The ACE Scholars Program: an integrative approach to undergraduate research training. The Chronicle of Mentoring and Coaching, Vol. 6, Special Issue 15.
- Ayers, J., Beltran, D. G., Alcock, J., Baciu, C., Claessens, S., Cronk, L., Hudson, N., Miller, G., Tidball, K., Winfrey, P., Zarka, E., & Aktipis, A. (2020). How is the COVID-19 pandemic affecting cooperation? Psyarxiv
- Wagge, J. R., Baciu, C., Banas, K., Nadler, J.T., Schwarz, S., Weisberg, Y., IJzerman, H., Legate, N., & Grahe, J. (2019). A Demonstration of the Collaborative Replication and Education Project: Replication Attempts of the Red-Romance Effect. Collabra: Psychology 5(1). https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/CHAX8
- Aktipis, A., Cronk, L., Alcock, J., Ayers, J., Baciu, C., Balliet, D., Boddy, A., Curry, O., Krems, A., Munoz, A., Sullivan, D., Sznycer, D., Wilkinson, G., Winfrey, P. (2018). Understanding cooperation through fitness interdependence. Nature Human Behavior. 2(7), 429-431
Selected Academic Talks
- Invited Talk: Mentoring students: the ACE Scholars Program, a model for undergraduate research training and community building. Biological Sciences School at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador (PUCE), Quito, Ecuador. November 10, 2022.
- Talk: Understanding e-mentoring: a quantitative study of online undergraduate students. 15th Annual Mentoring Conference, Fostering Diverse Communities of Mentorship: Evidence-Based Practices for Reciprocal Growth. The University of New Mexico. October 24-28, 2022.
- Talk: ACE Scholars Program: an integrative approach to undergraduate research training. 15th Annual Mentoring Conference, Fostering Diverse Communities of Mentorship: Evidence-Based Practices for Reciprocal Growth. The University of New Mexico. October 24-28, 2022.
- Zombie Apocalypse Medicine Meeting, Mentoring during the apocalypse: using technology as a tool for mentoring college students. Arizona State University, October 15-18, 2020.
- Humanities in Medicine Symposium 2019, Humanizing Cancer: The language of cancer across cultures. Mayo Clinic, Phoenix, AZ, October 24-26, 2019.
Selected Professional Development Talks
- Invited Talk: Personal Branding: How to build your professional reputation. Slalom Consulting, Chicago, IL. September 2022.
- Invited Talk: Mentoring: Why every professional needs at least one mentor (and preferably more) throughout their career, Golden Key International Honor Society, Golden Key Academy, February 2022.
- Invited Talk: Personal Branding: How to build a powerful reputation, Kappa Delta Chi, Arizona State University Chapter. September 2021.
- Cancer Evolution Lab Meeting, Personal Branding for Scientists: How to build a powerful reputation, October 2021.
- Cancer Evolution Lab Meeting, The Science of Effective Mentoring in STEMM, March 2021.