Two department chairs at the University of Missouri-Rolla have been named interim deans.

Dr. Caroline Fisher, chair of the business administration department, has been named interim dean of the UMR School of Management and Information Systems. Dr. William Schonberg, chair of the civil, architectural and environmental engineering department, will serve as interim dean of the UMR School of Engineering. Both appointments are for the 2006-2007 academic year.

Currently, department chairs report to deans. Starting in the 2007-2008 academic year, department chairs will report directly to UMR’s new provost, Dr. Warren K. Wray.

Fisher came to UMR in August of last year, when she was named chair of the business administration department and associate dean of the School of Management and Information Systems.

From 1985 to 2005, Fisher taught at Loyola University in New Orleans. She also served as the university’s director of graduate programs for two years.

Fisher 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.

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 becomes the second dean of the UMR School of Management and Information Systems. Dr. Arlan DeKock, who recently retired, had served as the dean since the school’s inception in 2001.

Schonberg replaces Dr. Robert Mitchell as dean of the UMR School of Engineering. Mitchell, who became dean of the school in 1994, will now direct the School of Engineering at Oklahoma Christian University.

Schonberg joined the UMR civil, architectural and environmental engineering department as chair and professor in 1999. Previously, he was a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

Schonberg is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. His research in the areas of shock physics, hypervelocity impacts and penetration mechanics has been applied to a variety of engineering problems — including the challenge of protecting low-earth orbiting spacecraft from debris.

After earning bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Princeton University in 1981, Schonberg earned a master’s degree in civil engineering (1983) and a Ph.D. in civil engineering (1986) from Northwestern University.