Irma Becerra Fernandez

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Irma Becerra Fernandez is a Cuban-American higher education leader who currently serves as the Provost and Chief Academic Officer at St. Thomas University, a nonprofit, private university located in Miami, Florida.

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Education

Becerra received her Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Electrical Engineering from University of Miami. She received her Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree from Florida International University also in Electrical Engineering.

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Career

Becerra is the Provost and Chief Academic Officer at St. Thomas University, a nonprofit, private university located in Miami, Florida. She is responsible for providing intellectual and academic leadership to the University's educational mission and vision.

Under Becerra's leadership, St. Thomas University had launched 21 new degrees. Among them are 1) Business, including Masters degrees in Cyber Security, and Marketing and a Doctorate of Business Administration in Sports Administration; 2) from School of Science, and Bachelors in Nursing as well as Nursing for Nurse Practitioners, Master of Science in Nursing and Data Analytics; 3) from Biscayne College (Liberal Arts) Masters in Criminal Justice 4) from the School of Theology and Ministry a new Masters of Art in Pastoral Ministry; and 5) from the School of Arts and Education a new Masters in Instructional Technology.

Becerra also initiated the launch of Catholic Education Continuum which provided Catholic High Schools with the latest college prep strategies and opportunities for students to complete the first year in college while in high school, and accelerate to graduation.

Prior to her taking office at St. Thomas University, Becerra worked at Florida International University (FIU) for 23 years. She served at FIU in various positions where she progressed through the ranks of Assistant Professor to Associate Professor, and eventually to Full Professor of Management Information Systems, Director and Fellow of the Pino Global Entrepreneurship Center, Vice Provost of Academic Affairs and Vice President of the Office of Engagement.

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Books

1.

Sabherwal, R. and Becerra-Fernandez, I. (2010) Business Intelligence: Practices, Technologies, and Management (2010). Publisher: Wiley, Hoboken, NY, USA. 2.

Becerra-Fernandez, I. and Sabherwal, R. (2010) Knowledge Management: Systems and Processes (2010). Publisher: M. E. Sharpe, Armonk, NY, USA. 3.

Becerra-Fernandez, I and Leidner, D. [eds] (2008) Knowledge Management: En Evolutionary View of the Field. Published in the series Advances in Management Information Systems, edited by Vladimir Zwass, series Editor. Publisher: M. E. Sharpe, Armonk, NY, USA. 4.

Becerra-Fernandez, I., Gonzalez, A., & Sabherwal, R. (2004) Knowledge Management: Challenges, Solutions, and Technologies. Publisher: Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, USA.

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Awards and recognition

• 2016 UPS Community Service Award by UPS Florida Latino Business Resource Group.
• 2015 Educator of the Year by the South Florida Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
• 2014 Bronze Medal Award by the Miami Today Newspaper.
• 2013 Educator of the Year by HENAAC Great Minds in STEM is an organization that promotes the STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) to underserved communities throughout the United States, with the goal to have those students pursue STEM-based careers. The HENAAC Awards recognize the achievements of the nations' top engineers and scientists within the Hispanic community.
• 2012 In the Company of Women Award for Education and Research, a Women's History Month Celebration with support from The Parks Foundation of Miami-Dade, the office of the Mayor and the Board of County Commissioners, March, 2012.
• 2011 Association of Cuban Engineers, Engineer of the Year Award, for outstanding contributions to the profession.
• Best Paper Award, First International Conference on Global Defense and Business Continuity (ICGDBC 2007), July 2007, San Jose, CA.
• Florida International University Pino Center for Entrepreneurship, 2007 Kauffman Entrepreneurship Professor, March 2007.
• Florida International University College of Business Service Award, October 2006.
• Florida International University Excellence in Teaching Award, October 2006.
• Knight Ridder Research Professorship, August 2006.
• Selected among the faculty for initiation into the professional business fraternity Delta Sigma Pi, for academic achievements and continued interest in the profession, April 2006.
• Nominated for the Best Paper Award, 38th Hawaii International Conference System Sciences, January 2005, Big Island, Hawaii.
• Florida International University 2004 Torch Award for Outstanding Faculty (presented by the FIU Alumni Association).
• Inducted into the "Circle of Compadres", PhD Project Information Systems Doctoral Students Association, for supporting and openly embracing their role to promote and inspire African-American, Hispanic-American and Native-American Information Systems doctoral students as they pursue their degrees and take their place in the academic profession, August 2004.
• Association of Cuban Engineers Amezaga Award, for outstanding service to the organization, January 2003.
• Florida International University Excellence in Research Award, October 2001.
• Florida International University College of Business CIBER Best International Paper Award, 2001.
• Society of Women Engineers Space Coast Section, "National Women's History Month Honoree", 1999.
• Coalition of Hispanic American Women (CHAW) "Women's History Month Honoree in Science and Technology"1997.
• Florida International University Award for Outstanding Service in the Area of Access and Equity - 1997.
• Who's Who in America, Who's Who in Science and Engineering, Who's Who of American Women, and Who's Who in the World, Who's Who in Finance and Industry, Outstanding Young Woman of America.
• Featured in National Science Foundation's sponsored "Engineering Inspirations" website.

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Media appearances

• Venture Equity Latin America, "VC Opportunities in Brazil, Colombia and Beyond", November 15, 2011
• CNN en Español, "Oportunidades de Negocio", November 15, 2011
• South Florida Business Journal, "Event connects entrepreneurs and investors", November 11, 2011
• Business Wire, "FIU's Venture Capital Conference to Showcase Companies Destines to Create Jobs", November 8, 2011
• Expansion.com, " Empresas de toda America debatiran en Miami sobre el capital de riesgo", October 19, 2011
• iStockAnalyst, "Fueling innovation: FIU enterprise conference focuses on Latin America, November 8th, 2010
• Miami Today, "Irma Becerra- Fernandez fosters entrepreneurship at FIU with first two day America Venture Capital Conference", October 6, 2010

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Papers in referred professional journals

• Beath, C., Becerra-Fernandez, I., Ross, J. and Short, J. (2012) "Finding Value in the Information Explosion" Sloan Management Review. 43(4). 18-20.
• Xia, W., Becerra-Fernandez, I., S Gudi, A. and S Rocha, J. "Emergency Management Task Complexity and Knowledge Sharing Strategies" Cutter IT Journal, January 2011.
• Becerra-Fernandez, I., Elam J., and PSP Clemmons, S. "Reversing the landslide in Student Enrollments in Computer-Related Degree Programs" *Communications of the ACM. 53 (2) 127-133.
• Hoffman, R., Ziebell, D., Fiore, S., and Becerra-Fernandez, I. (2008) Knowledge Management Revisited, IEEE: Intelligent Systems, 23(3) 84-88.
• Becerra-Fernandez, I. and PS PGudi, A. An Experiential Approach to Teaching Knowledge Management. (2008) International Journal of Teaching and Case Studies (IJTCS), special Issue on: "Teaching Knowledge Management: Integration into Curriculum, Teaching Strategies and Teaching Case Studies", 1 (3), 171-188.
• Becerra-Fernandez, I., Cousins, K., Weber, R. (2007) Nomadic Context-Aware Knowledge Management Systems: Applications, Challenges, and Research Problems. International Journal of Mobile Learning and Organisation, 1(2) 103-121.
• Kumar, K. and Becerra-Fernandez, I. (2007) Interaction Technology: Speech-Act Based Information Technology Support for Building Collaborative Relationships and Trust. Decision Support Systems, 43(2), 584-606.
• Becerra-Fernandez, I. (2006) Searching for Experts on the Web: A Review of Contemporary Expertise Locator Systems. *ACM Transactions on Internet Technology. 6(4), 333-355.
• Becerra-Fernandez, I., Del Alto, M. and Stewart, H. (2006) A Case Study of Web-based Collaborative Decision Support at NASA. International Journal of e-Collaboration. 2(3), 49-63.
• Sabherwal, R. & Becerra-Fernandez, I. (2005) Integrating Specific Knowledge: Insights from the Kennedy Space Center. *IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 52(3), 301-315.
• Becerra-Fernandez, I., Wang, T., Agha, G., PSP Sin, T. (2005) Actor Model and Knowledge Management Systems: Social Interaction as a Framework for Knowledge Integration. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 3782, 19-31.
• Becerra-Fernandez, I., Murphy, K., and Elam, J. (2005) Successfully Implementing ERP: The IBM Personal Systems Group Experience. International Journal of Internet and Enterprise Management, 3(1), 78-97.
• Becerra-Fernandez I. and Sabherwal R., (2005) Knowledge Management at NASA-Kennedy Space Center. International Journal of Knowledge and Learning. 1(1/2). 159-170.
• Zanakis, S. and Becerra-Fernandez, I. (2005) Competitiveness of Nations: A Knowledge Discovery Examination. *European Journal of Operations Research, 166(1), 185-211.
• Elam, J. and Becerra-Fernandez, I. (2003) MetalSpectrum: A Virtual Marketplace for Brick-and-Mortar Products. Journal of Information Systems Education (JISE), 14 (3), 285-292.
• Sabherwal, R. & Becerra-Fernandez, I. (2003) An Empirical Study of the Effect of Knowledge Management Processes at Individual, Group, and Organizational Levels. *Decision Sciences, 34 (2), 225-261.
• Becerra-Fernandez, I., Zanakis, S., & Walczak, S. (2002) Knowledge Discovery Techniques for Predicting Country Investment Risk. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 43(4), 787-800.
• Becerra-Fernandez, I., & Sabherwal, R. (2001). Organizational Knowledge Management Processes: A Contingency Perspective. *Journal of Management Information Systems, 18(1), 23-55.
• Becerra-Fernandez, I. (2001) Identifying Potential Markets for the Intellectual Property at Kennedy Space Center and Initial Results. International Journal of Technology Transfer and Commercialisation. 1(1/2/3), 1-16.
• Welty, B., & Becerra-Fernandez, I. (2001). Managing Trust and Commitment in Collaborative Supply Chain Relationships. *Communications of the ACM, 44(6) 67-73.
• Becerra-Fernandez, I., & Stevenson, J. M. (2001). Knowledge Management Systems and Solutions for the School Principal as Chief Learning Officer. Education, 121(3), 508-518.
• Weber, R., Aha, D.W., & Becerra-Fernandez, I. (2001). Intelligent Lessons Learned Systems. Expert Systems with Applications, 20(1), 17-34.
• Becerra-Fernandez, I. (2001) Locating Expertise at NASA - Developing a tool to leverage human capital". Knowledge Management Review, 4(4), 34-37.
• Becerra-Fernandez, I. (2000). The Role of Artificial Intelligence Technologies in the Implementation of People-Finder Knowledge Management Systems. Knowledge Based Systems, 13(5), 315-320.
• Becerra-Fernandez, I., Taylor, A., Buckingham, G., Brown, D., Entessari, A., & Kinney, F. (2000). The NASA/Florida Minority Institution Entrepreneurial Partnership - An Infrastructure to Enable Technology Transfer to Small Businesses. Journal of Technology Transfer, 25(2), 193-203.
• Becerra-Fernandez, I., Murphy, K., & Simon, S. (2000). Integrating ERP in the Business School Curriculum. *Communications of the ACM, 43(4), 39-41.

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References

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External links

• CNN en Español Interview
• Americas Venture Capital Conference Interview
• Book: Sabherwal, R. and Becerra-Fernandez, I. (2010) Business Intelligence: Practices, Technologies, and Management (2010). Publisher: Wiley, Hoboken, NY, USA.
• Book: Becerra-Fernandez, I. and Sabherwal, R. (2010) Knowledge Management: Systems and Processes (2010). Publisher: M. E. Sharpe, Armonk, NY, USA.
• Book: Becerra-Fernandez, I and Leidner, D. (2008) Knowledge Management: En Evolutionary View of the Field. Published in the series Advances in Management Information Systems, edited by Vladimir Zwass, series Editor. Publisher: M. E. Sharpe, Armonk, NY, USA.
• Book: Becerra-Fernandez, I., Gonzalez, A., & Sabherwal, R. (2004) Knowledge Management: Challenges, Solutions, and Technologies. Publisher: Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, USA.

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