M E M O R A N D U M

To: FIU Community

From: Douglas Wartzok, Provost & Executive Vice President

Date: 18 January 2011

Re: Vice Provost for Academic Affairs

I am pleased to announce that Dr. Irma Becerra-Fernandez has accepted the position of Vice Provost for Academic Affairs effective today. Irma is Professor of Management Information Systems (MIS), and the Director and Fellow of the Pino Global Entrepreneurship Center within the College of Business Administration. Irma graduated as the first female PhD student in Electrical Engineering at FIU back in 1994. She obtained both her Bachelors and Masters degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of and worked at Florida Power and Light for six years. Upon receiving her doctorate, she joined the Southern Technology Application Center at the University of Florida, which commercialized technology developed at NASA. After a few years at that post she joined the department of Decision Sciences and Information Systems within the College of Business at FIU in 1998. During the subsequent twelve years, she continued her relationship with NASA (Kennedy, Ames, Goddard Space Flight Center, and NASA Headquarters), and other federal agencies such as the National Science Foundation and the Air Force Research Lab, securing approximately two million dollars in federal grants as a principal investigator under the auspices of the FIU Knowledge Management Lab, which she founded. Irma's research focuses on knowledge management (KM), KM systems, enterprise systems, and disaster management. Irma has studied and advised organizations, in particular NASA, about KM practices. During her tenure as a faculty member, she published three books, twenty four refereed journal articles, forty seven conference papers, seven book chapters and edited one research monograph. In addition she has delivered four keynote speeches and fifty-one invited presentations at many NASA Centers, the NAVY Research Lab, universities around the world, and international conferences with both an academic and a practitioner focus.

As director of the Pino Global Entrepreneurship Center Irma was responsible for defining a new business strategy for the Center and designing a plan to ensure the Center would be able to achieve self- sustainability. During her tenure as Center Director she and her team launched new initiatives, including the FIU Americas Venture Capital Conference, held last November 17th and 18th, which provided a unique opportunity for approximately 350 Latin American and U.S. entrepreneurs to network with financiers, service providers, and others invested in the growth of Latin American business.

Dr. Becerra-Fernandez was the recipient of the 2004 Outstanding Faculty Torch Award, presented by the FIU Alumni Association, the 2006 FIU Faculty Teaching Award and the 2001 FIU Faculty Research Award. She is currently the Americas Region representative to the Association for Information Systems Executive Council. She has served as the Faculty Director for the Masters in MIS and the Director of the MIS Ph.D. Program. She has served the university through numerous committee assignments, including the Faculty Development Committee, Convocation Committee, Sabbatical Committee, Academic Judicial Committee, and Advisory Council of the Honors College, among many others. Irma also serves on many editorial boards for research journals including the International Journal of Knowledge Management, the International Journal of Knowledge and Learning, and the International Journal of Mobile Learning and Organisation, among others.

Please join me in welcoming Irma to her new position of leadership and responsibility as our Vice Provost for Academic Affairs.