Executive Director, Engineering and Technology Innovation Management Program; Professor of the Practice, Engineering and Public Policy

Strategies and processes for driving innovation and creating sustainable value; technology planning; the front end of innovation

A.B. (Chemistry) 1978, Princeton University
Ph.D. (Engineering and Public Policy) 1984, Carnegie Mellon
Carnegie Mellon, 2006 -
Alcoa, Inc., 1984-2005
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1984
International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, 1983
Church and Dwight Co., Inc., 1978-79

Dr. Fisher is the Executive Director for a new, interdisciplinary Master’s degree program in Engineering and Technology Innovation Management (E&TIM) offered by Carnegie Mellon’s College of Engineering. The E&TIM program is designed to equip engineering professionals to lead innovation and manage technology-enabled value creation. The program builds on the Strategy, Entrepreneurship and Technological Change (SETChange) Ph.D. program, as well as Carnegie Mellon’s strong engineering graduate programs. The program encourages industrial contacts through summer internship projects in industry, product or process innovation project courses with industrial clients, and seminars about “Innovation Management in Practice”, featuring industrial speakers.

Prior to joining the Carnegie Mellon faculty, Dr. Fisher spent many years in innovation management in the corporate world. She served as Manager of Technology Planning for Alcoa, Inc. at their corporate R&D center. In this role, she led the corporate Front-End Innovation Process for the selection, framing and rapid testing of early stage innovative concepts for product and process development. Her experience also includes R&D project valuation, R&D project portfolio analysis; and aligning product and process sustainability objectives with R&D initiatives.

She also has corporate experience leading strategic analysis and technology planning for a number of different business units. This planning uses the power of science and engineering limits for engaging stakeholders in identifying, analyzing and quantifying the financial potential of breakthrough opportunities.

Representative Publications

"Fuzzy Front End: Effective Methods, Tools and Techniques", with P. Koen, et al., in The PDMA Toolbook for New Product Development. Paul Belliveau, Abbie Griffin and Stephen Somermeyer, Editors, John Wiley and Sons, New York, 2002.

"The Total Environmental Potential of Aluminum in Automobiles", with R. Schultz and K. Martchek, in Proceedings of the Total Life Cycle Conference, Society of Automotive Engineers, October, 1995.

"Improving Manufacturing Competitiveness through Strategic Analysis", with G. K. Turnbull, et al., in Manufacturing Systems: Foundations of World-Class Practice. Joseph A. Heim and W. Dale Compton, Editors, National Academy of Engineering, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 1992.