Montoya appointed executive dean

Mitzi Montoya, assistant dean of research and Zelnak Professor of Marketing Innovation at North Carolina State University’s College of Management, has been appointed executive dean of the Arizona State University College of Technology and Innovation (CTI), effective July 1, 2010.

Montoya will report to Keith Hjelmstad, university vice president and dean of CTI, and serve as a key member of the College’s leadership team. Her responsibilities will be broad and will include faculty growth and development as well as planning and executing strategic initiatives.

“Mitzi Montoya has a broad background in management and engineering that is ideally suited to the position of executive dean of the College of Technology and Innovation,” said ASU President Michael M. Crow. “She is an able administrator, a strategic thinker and an innovator. I look forward to having her help develop our engineering, applied science, innovation management and related programs at the Polytechnic campus to their full potential.”

“Dr. Montoya is an innovative educator and researcher who bridges management and engineering, the perfect fit for the polytechnic mission. She will also be key in innovations in undergraduate education at the university level and will make a real difference to ASU,” said Provost and Executive Vice President Elizabeth D. Capaldi.  

Added Dean Hjelmstad, “Dr. Montoya has a proven track record of scholarship and service in higher education and her work with innovation and entrepreneurship will help me to move forward a vision for the future for the college in these strategic areas.” 

“I like working at the boundaries,” said Montoya. “I believe we can develop better solutions to real problems when we work across boundaries because real innovation lies at the intersection of thought worlds. For me, CTI is a bold experiment in exactly that – by bringing together disparate disciplines under one academic ‘roof,’ it is an incredible opportunity to create novel and much needed educational and research solutions.”

She is currently the principal investigator on a $1.4 million National Science Foundation grant focused on computational collaboration in crime scene investigation. The project, IC-CRIME (Interdisciplinary Cyber-Enabled Crime Reconstruction through Innovative Methodology and Engagement) was launched in response to a scathing report by the National Academies of Science to enhance the reliability and validity of forensic science.

Another of Montoya’s projects involves work on virtual innovation teams to explore technology-enabled collaboration and decision-making, including the role of emerging 3-D virtual world technology as a collaborative environment.  

Montoya earned a bachelor’s degree in general engineering and a doctoral degree in business administration, both from Michigan State University.

Her work at North Carolina State University includes serving as executive director, Services and Product Innovation Initiative; marketing area coordinator, Business Management Department; and MBA concentration co-director for services management at the North Carolina State University College of Engineering. She served as special assistant to the Vice Chancellor of Research and Graduate Studies, and founded the interdisciplinary Innovation Management Program.