Cristina Baciu
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Mail code: 7801Campus: Tempe
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Dr. Cristina Baciu is a higher education leader, research development professional, and mentoring scholar-practitioner. She currently serves as Assistant Director of Research at the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, where she supports faculty research strategy, proposal development, interdisciplinary collaboration, PhD student engagement, and school-wide initiatives that strengthen research capacity.
Cristina’s work sits at the intersection of research development, mentoring, student success, leadership, and the future of higher education. She is particularly interested in how mentoring structures, institutional systems, and emerging technologies, including generative AI, can expand access, belonging, and opportunity for students, faculty, and early-career scholars.
Prior to joining W. P. Carey in January 2024, Cristina served in research leadership and program management roles at ASU, including as Administrative Director and Research Program Manager for interdisciplinary initiatives at the intersection of cooperation, cancer evolution, and undergraduate research training. She is the Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Arizona Cancer Evolution Center Scholars Program and the Cooperation Scholars Program, and has advised additional mentoring and undergraduate research initiatives, including the Biocomputing Scholars Program and the Future of Being Human Undergraduate Initiative.
Cristina is also the author of the forthcoming book Beyond the Campus: The Power of E-Mentoring in Modern Higher Education, to be published by Emerald in late 2026. Her scholarship and practice focus on mentoring, leadership development, barriers to student success, and the evolving role of technology in higher education.
Cristina earned her Ed.D. in Educational Leadership and M.Ed. in Educational Leadership from Northern Arizona University, both with distinction. She also holds undergraduate degrees in psychology, business, and economics. Before entering higher education, Cristina worked in accounting and luxury hospitality leadership in Bucharest, Romania, experiences that continue to inform her approach to strategy, service, organizational excellence, and people-centered leadership.
Dr. Cristina Baciu’s research and scholarly work center on mentoring in higher education, student success, research development, leadership, and the intersections between technology and higher education. Her work examines how mentoring systems, institutional structures, and emerging technologies, including generative AI, can expand access, belonging, persistence, and professional development for students and early-career scholars.
Her interdisciplinary research interests also include cancer communication, science communication, cooperation, undergraduate research training, and barriers to student success, including food and housing insecurity. Across these areas, Cristina is especially interested in how institutions can design more inclusive, sustainable, and human-centered systems of support.
Research Groups and Collaborations
Cristina has collaborated with several interdisciplinary research groups and initiatives at Arizona State University. She is Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Arizona Cancer Evolution Center Scholars Program and the Cooperation Scholars Program, both of which were designed to expand access to undergraduate research, mentoring, and professional development.
Her prior research leadership and program management work includes collaborations with the Arizona Cancer Evolution Center, the Interdisciplinary Cooperation Initiative, the Cooperation Science Network, and the Cooperation Lab. Through these roles, she has contributed to interdisciplinary research, student mentoring, science communication, outreach, grant development, and research training initiatives.
Book
Baciu, C. & Brazelton, B. (forthcoming, 2026). Beyond the Campus: The Power of E-Mentoring in Modern Higher Education. Emerald Publishing.
Selected Publications
Baciu, C. (2026). Reframing mentoring in higher education as a cooperative system: Four principles for inclusive and sustainable development. Frontiers in Education, 11, 1819548. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2026.1819548
Enriquez, P., Lin, H-Y., & Baciu, C. (2026). Artificial intelligence in higher education: Student use, perceived benefits, and emerging risks. Frontiers in Education.
Baciu, C., Gopalakrishnan, M., & Wilson, J. (2026). Algorithmic scholarship and academic evaluation: Governance misalignment in the age of generative AI. Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence.
Guevara Beltran, D., Ayers, J. D., Alcock, J., Baciu, C., Claessens, S., Hudson, N. M., Miller, G., Tidball, K., Winfrey, P., Zarka, E., Todd, M. P., & Aktipis, A. (2024). Shared fate was associated with sustained cooperation during the COVID-19 pandemic. PLOS ONE.
Yavari, B., Kolbehdari, N., Gann, L., Portillo, M., Rumschlag, A., Aldridge, M., Mellon, W., Marquez Alcaraz, G., Richker, H., Sarkissian, M., Compton, Z., Aktipis, A., Maley, C., & Baciu, C. (2024). The digital health revolution: Exploring the impact of online cancer information on self-reported preventive behaviors. medRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.05.20.24307517
Compton, Z. T., Mellon, W., Harris, V., Rupp, S., Mallo, D., Kapsetaki, S., Wilmot, M., Kennington, R., Noble, K., Baciu, C., Ramirez, L., Peraza, A., Martins, B., Sudhakar, S., Aksoy, S., Furukawa, G., Vincze, O., Giraudeau, M. T., Duke, E., Spiro, S., … Boddy, A. (2024). Cancer prevalence across vertebrates. Cancer Discovery, 15(1), 227–244.
Baciu, C. & Brazelton, B. (2022). Examining e-mentoring: Factors that influence online undergraduate students’ perceptions of e-mentoring. The Chronicle of Mentoring & Coaching, 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, 6, Special Issue 15.
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 Talks and Presentations
Invited Talk: Elevating Mentorship: Tools, Insights, and Strategies for Meaningful Connections. American Public Health Association. August 14, 2025.
Talk: Building a Culture of Collaboration and Research Excellence: Initiatives for Driving Innovation and Impact. National Organization of Research Development Professionals Conference. April 28–May 1, 2025.
Invited Talk: Building Bridges: Cultivating Mentorship in Public Health Statistics. American Public Health Association, Statistics Division Annual Meeting. Minneapolis, MN. October 28, 2024.
Invited Plenary Talk: Mentoring in the Digital Age: Unveiling Factors Shaping E-Mentoring Engagement Among Online Students. International Mentoring Association Biannual Conference. Charlotte, NC. February 26–27, 2024.
Workshop Lead: Building a Culture of Peer Mentoring: Fostering Growth, Collaboration, and Role Modeling. “It’s Your Business” W. P. Carey Professional Development Conference. Arizona State University. May 21, 2024.
Workshop Lead: Empowering Excellence: The Power of Mentoring in Building Community and Belonging. Illinois Institute of Technology. Chicago, IL. March 20, 2024.
Invited Talk: Mentoring Students: The ACE Scholars Program, a Model for Undergraduate Research Training and Community Building. Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador. Quito, Ecuador. November 10, 2022.
Talk: Understanding E-Mentoring: A Quantitative Study of Online Undergraduate Students. 15th Annual Mentoring Conference, University of New Mexico. October 24–28, 2022.
Humanities in Medicine Symposium: Humanizing Cancer: The Language of Cancer Across Cultures. Mayo Clinic. Phoenix, AZ. October 24–26, 2019.