Barbara Abercrombie, Ph.D., SPHR, began serving the UNT System as Chief Human Capital Officer in 2018 and added the title of Vice Chancellor for Organizational Effectiveness in 2019. 

In her role, Abercrombie oversees the human resources efforts for more than 10,000 faculty and staff at UNT, UNT Dallas, UNT Health Sciecne Center and UNT System Administration. The addition of organizational effectiveness to the UNT System human resources structure puts an emphasis on strategic and transformational processes that benefit the UNTS campuses and system administration. Organizational effectiveness is a systematic approach to enhance the performance of an organization through its people, by using interventions that focus on team performance, employee development, operational efficiency and organizational structure.  

Abercrombie arrived at UNT with more than 14 years of experience in human resources and organizational effectiveness to the UNT System. Prior to working for the UNT System, Abercrombie served as Vice President of Human Resources and Organizational Effectiveness and Chief Human Resources Officer at Texas A&M University in College Station. During her time at Texas A&M, Abercrombie strived to promote programs that connected the roles of faculty and staff to the university’s strategic plan, while emphasizing career growth and employee development. Abercrombie also has served as Associate Vice Chancellor for Administration and Chief Human Resources Officer at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, as well as Director of Human Resources at the University of Oklahoma at Tulsa.

Abercrombie holds a bachelor’s degree from Northeastern State University, a master’s in human relations from University of Oklahoma and a doctorate in workforce education and human resource development from Oklahoma State University. She is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR), a member of the National Board for the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR), and is an expert in the collaborative leadership model.