Dr. Deb, as Dr. Deborah Fisher is known by her students and friends, has been an outstanding mentor and example for women in the cost engineering and project controls field.
She has been an active AACE International member since 1978, in both the Houston, Texas and Albuquerque, New Mexico sections.
Deborah served for a number of years on the AACE International Education Board and the Technical Boards at the Association level, and was Region 5 Director from 1995-1997.
As a professor of construction engineering at the University of New Mexico (UNM) since 1994, she has taught many courses on constructability and manufacturing applications to lean construction, and did a sabbatical at Sandia National Laboratories. Prior to UNM, she was an assistant professor at the University of Houston, and served as the project controls manager for Foster Wheeler in Houston from 1978 to 1988. She received her Ph.D. in civil engineering from the University of Texas in 1989, and has been a registered professional engineer since 1981.
Dr. Fisher created the Construction Advancement Institute at UNM, and served as the Associated General Contractors' endowed chair at UNM. She worked closely with the Society of Women Engineers over the years, and recently received the national Distinguished Engineering Educator Award in Anaheim, California at the Society of Women Engineers' annual conference in early November 2005.
Dr. Deb has taught over 20 different courses in construction engineering management, project engineering management, and related fields, including nine new courses that she conceived and developed to fill gaps that she identified in the curriculum. In addition to developing courses in her technical field, she created a course entitled, "Women Engineering the Future," a course originated for freshman female engineering students.
Thirty students have completed masters and Ph.D. programs in construction engineering and management under her mentorship and advisement. Most recently, two-thirds of her graduate students have been female, attesting to her ability to influence females and bring them into a highly male-dominated discipline. She is respected for her teaching techniques, as well as innovative courses, and has been consistently highly rated by her own students for her teaching ability and fairness.
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A prolific and deeply dedicated researcher, Deborah has conducted research in the construction engineering and management field for almost 15 years, focusing on the application of artificial intelligence and other computer modeling techniques to constructability (the ability to construct something as shown on the design drawings cost-effectively and on schedule in the face of adverse field conditions). She believes strongly in the dissemination of research findings as evidenced by 40-plus research presentations that she has made during her academic career.
Dr. Fisher's favorite job was her recent sabbatical at Sandia National Laboratories, where her project included the development of an education and training model for the career development of project managers in constructed facilities. She was able to blend both her passions of cutting edge research and education and then seeing the model implemented into construction engineering management.
At home, Dr. Deb is the mother of a 7-year-old daughter adopted from Russia, and stepmother to two grown sons. Her husband is a structural engineer who became a construction attorney.
She believes that her biggest challenge over the years has been to be patient while waiting for the world to change. "Change just does not happen fast enough for me," she says—whether it is change in importing a new research concept or idea from academia to the construction industry, or whether it is change in diversifying the typically "white, male" environment in construction and academia.
The advice that Deborah would give to women entering the project controls and cost engineering field is to, “be true to your authentic self - whether you are an Hispanic, white, native American or African American female. You bring a valued, unique perspective to the industry.”
Dr. Deb believes that AACE International has helped her career through the wonderful networking opportunities that she has been given at the national level. Says she, "There are so many highly capable colleagues and lifelong friends that I have made within AACE International. I will treasure those relationships forever."
Article by Marlene Hyde, CCE
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