Irma Becerra Fernandez
Irma Becerra-Fernandez is a Cuban-American higher education leader and the seventh president of Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia. She has held this role since July 1, 2018. Prior to her current post, she was the Provost and Chief Academic Officer at St. Thomas University, a nonprofit, private university located in Miami, Florida. Education. Becerra received Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Miami. She received a doctoral degree from Florida International University, also in Electrical Engineering. Career. Becerra took office as the seventh President of Marymount University  in Arlington, Va., on July 1, 2018. In her first six months in the role, she launched the University’s new Strategic Plan, “Momentum,” which is guiding the University over the five-year period from 2019 to 2024. The plan calls for Marymount to achieve national and international recognition for innovation and commitment to student success, alumni achievement and faculty and staff excellence. After three years as President, Becerra has introduced several initiatives in support of Marymount’s mission and vision for the future. This includes adding market-driven academic programs that prioritize career preparation, overseeing the transition to a  new academic structure, acquiring The Rixey luxury apartment building next door to Marymount’s Ballston Center and improving the university’s IT infrastructure through the implementation of the state-of-the-art enterprise resource planning application, Workday. She has also navigated the school community through the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. A Cuban-born American, Becerra immigrated to the United States with her parents when she was an infant, living in Puerto Rico through high school. She earned both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Miami and went on to become the first  woman to earn a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Florida International University (FIU). Prior to Marymount, she served as Provost and Chief Academic Officer at St. Thomas University in Miami Gardens, Fla., from 2014 to 2018. In those four years, she led the expansion of academic offerings, launching 19 new market-driven degrees that included Nursing and Cybersecurity. Other initiatives included the development of fully-online programs, the establishment of the University’s Student Success Center and the implementation of structural changes and new technology. Before St. Thomas, Becerra spent three decades at FIU in a variety of positions that  include Vice President, Vice Provost, Entrepreneurship Center Director and tenured professor in Management Information Systems. She founded FIU’s Knowledge Management Lab and led major projects as principal investigator at the National Science Foundation, NASA (Headquarters, Kennedy, Ames and Goddard Space Flight Centers) and the Air Force Research Lab. She was also a Sloan Scholar at MIT’s Center for Information Systems Research. Becerra has authored four books and numerous journal articles in the areas of knowledge management and business intelligence. Her original research has also spanned such areas as enterprise systems, disaster management and IT entrepreneurship. Irma Becerra Fernandez