Dr. Delores M. Etter joined the Electrical Engineering faculty at Southern Methodist University on June 2, 2008. She holds the Texas Instruments Distinguished Chair in Engineering Education and is Director of the Caruth Institute for Engineering Education. She holds a joint appointment in the Computer Science Department and is a Senior Fellow of the John Goodwin Tower Center for Political Studies. Her research interests include digital 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.

Dr. Etter has held two senior executive positions in the Department of Defense. As Assistant Secretary of the Navy (ASN) for Research, Development, and Acquisition (RDA) from 2005 to 2007, she was the Senior Acquisition Executive for the Navy and the Marine Corps. She was also the Senior Acquisition Executive for several joint programs, including the Joint Strike Fighter and the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle. Additionally, 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 (including surface ships, carriers, and submarines), air programs (including strike aircraft, tactical aircraft, rotorcraft, unmanned aircraft, and missiles), expeditionary warfare (including land vehicles, amphibious vehicles, and body armor), and command, control, communications, computers, and intelligence/integrated warfare systems (including command, control, and communication systems; mission computing systems; radars; gun systems; and satellites). Dr. Etter provided critical leadership in a number of significant areas including open architecture, enterprise resource planning, and technical workforce revitalization. Key responsibilities as ASN (RDA) included frequent interactions with Congress, industry leaders, and international partners. The Department of the Navy recently renamed its outstanding research awards the Dr. Delores M. Etter Top Scientists and Engineers Awards.

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 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. In this capacity, she was responsible for the Defense Modeling and Simulation Organization, the High Performance Computing Modernization Office, and 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 previously held the Office of Naval Research Distinguished Chair in the Electrical/Computer Engineering Department at the United States Naval Academy, where she was a faculty member from 2001 to 2008. She was formerly a member of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Departments 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.

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 Electronics Engineers, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Society for Engineering Education. She served as President of the IEEE Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing Society from 1988 to 1989 and was Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing from 1993 to 1995. Dr. Etter was a member of the Naval Research Advisory Committee from 1991 to 1997 and chaired the committee from 1995 to 1997.

Dr. Etter has received many national awards and honors, such as 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.