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March 10, 2008
Dr. Delores M. Etter
 Delores M. Etter |
Dr. Delores M. Etter will become director of SMU's new Caruth Institute for Engineering Education and the Texas Instruments Distinguished Chair in Engineering Education on June 1, 2008.
Dr. Etter rejoined the Electrical/Computer Engineering faculty at the United States Naval Academy on December 1, 2007, after serving for two years as the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition (ASN RDA). She also holds the Office of Naval Research (ONR) Distinguished Chair in Science and Technology.
Dr. Etter originally joined the faculty at the Naval Academy in 2001. She was formerly a member of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Colorado, Boulder (1990-98), and at the University of New Mexico (1980-89). She was also a Visiting Professor in the Information Systems Laboratory at Stanford University in 1983-84.
Her academic interests are in digital signal processing and communications. Her research interests include adaptive signal processing and biometric signal processing, with an emphasis on identification using iris recognition. She has also written a number of textbooks on computer languages and software engineering.
As the Navy's Senior Acquisition Executive from Nov 2005 through Nov 2007, Dr. Etter was responsible for research, development, and acquisition for the Navy and the Marine Corps. She was also the Senior Acquisition Executive for several Joint programs, including the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) and the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle (MRAP). She was responsible for strategic planning and program execution and evaluation across the Department's broad range of programs.
Her leadership focused on a set of four key portfolios: ships (included surface ships, carriers, and submarines), air programs (included strike aircraft, tactical aircraft, rotorcraft, unmanned aircraft, and missiles), expeditionary warfare (included land vehicles, amphibious vehicles, and body armor), and C4I/integrated warfare systems (included command/control/communication systems, mission computing systems, radars, gun systems, and satellites).
Dr. Etter also provided critical leadership in a number of significant areas including Open Architecture (OA), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), and technical workforce revitalization. Key responsibilities as ASN RDA included frequent interactions with Congress, industry leaders, and international partners.
From June 1998 through July 2001, Dr. Etter served as the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Science and Technology. In that position, she was responsible for Defense Science and Technology strategic planning, budget allocation, and program execution and evaluation for the DoD Science and Technology Program. Dr. Etter was the Principal U.S. representative to the NATO Research and Technology Board. She was responsible for the Defense Modeling and Simulation Organization, the High Performance Computing Modernization Office, and for technical oversight of the Software Engineering Institute. Dr. Etter was also the senior civilian in charge of the DoD high-energy laser research program.
Dr. Etter's experience at the corporate level has included Board of Director and Board of Trustee membership for both publicly traded and private companies as well as non-profit organizations.
Dr. Etter is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. She is also a former member of the National Science Board and the Defense Science Board. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). She served as President of the IEEE Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing Society from 1988-89, and was Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing from 1993-95. Dr. Etter was a member of the Naval Research Advisory Committee from 1991-97, and chaired the committee from 1995-97.
Dr. Etter has received many national awards and honors. She has received the Department of the Navy Distinguished Public Service Award, the Secretary of Defense Outstanding Public Service Medal, and the Department of Defense Distinguished Public Service Medal.
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