Born in India, Dr. Elizabeth Jacob, an associate professor of Counseling and Human Services, was raised in New York City by two hardworking, doting parents, who held education in high esteem.

“Going to college – there was no discussion about it,” Dr. Jacob explains.

After completing her bachelor’s degree at New York University, she earned her master’s degree in community counseling from Scranton and later a doctoral degree in counseling psychology at Lehigh University.

Soon thereafter, a former mentor at Scranton recommended she return to the University as a faculty member, and she accepted the opportunity to come back.

Because her father’s brother was a Jesuit priest, Dr. Jacob explains she always “gravitated to Jesuit education.”

Plus, Scranton’s community was more than welcoming to Dr. Jacob, her husband and their two daughters. The devoted mother says of her family, “They are my reason for smiling every day.”

While Dr. Jacob considers herself a “New Yorker at heart,” The University of Scranton is now home for her.

Having taught at the University for more than a decade, Dr. Jacob enjoys the opportunity to make a “difference in every student’s life,” as well as the diversity of people and ideas found in each classroom.

Scranton students all have at least one thing in common, she says. “You (can) challenge them and they rise to the occasion.”