The business administration department at the University of Missouri-Rolla has a new chair. Dr. Caroline Fisher, chair and professor of business administration as of August, replaces Dr. Ray Kluczny, now a professor emeritus of business administration at UMR. Fisher has also assumed the position of associate dean of the UMR School of Management and Information Systems.

Fisher came to UMR from Loyola University in New Orleans, where she had taught since 1985. She holds a Ph.D. in psychology from Bowling Green State University, where she was a National Science Foundation fellow. She also earned a master’s of business administration degree from the University of New Orleans, a master’s degree in psychology at Eastern Michigan University and a bachelor’s degree in psychology at Kalamazoo College.

Fisher served as director of graduate programs for two years at Loyola. In 2004, she was a visiting professor of marketing at the University of Hawaii at Hilo. From 1976 to 1980, she worked as a psychologist in Louisiana state and public schools.

Among Fisher’s research interests are the theory of quality management, customer satisfaction and loyalty, management in the music industry and the hotel needs of business travelers.

Fisher’s research has been published in a variety of professional journals. In 2003, she published a book with a co-author on service development and improvement. She is also a past Baldrige National Quality Award examiner and has served as president of the Louisiana Quality Foundation.

A few of Fisher’s main priorities are to get a new MBA program “up and running” at UMR and to pursue accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business for the UMR School of Management and Information Systems.

Fisher still owns a house in New Orleans, and she says her move to Rolla was timely.

“I don’t know if our house has survived the storm,” Fisher says. “We were in the process of selling it, but it hadn’t gone to the act of sale. We do have flood insurance, thankfully.”