Dr. Irma Becerra’s childhood was far from ordinary. At eight months old, she and her family fled Cuba with only the shirts on their backs. Her family’s life was being threatened for their assets, as were other families like hers in 1960.

“It was an incredibly traumatic experience,” said Dr. Becerra, president of Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia. “We lost everything having to immigrate from our country. We had to start from scratch.”

Beginning a new life from scratch in Puerto Rico taught Dr. Becerra persistence at a very young age. In addition, she will never forget her grandmother’s words—the ones she carries with her as president of a higher education institution: “No matter what happens, no one can take away what you have in your head.”

“As a leader, I really want to convey that no matter what happens, no one can take away your education,” said the president. “Preparation is key. So, prepare, prepare, prepare and persist, persist, persist. You have to get up after failing and keep trying.”

Formative Years: Overcoming Challenges and Achieving Success

Dr. Becerra’s life has been an example of exactly that. She spent her childhood in Puerto Rico, where, as she put it, “we faced many challenges.” Struggling to survive in a new country was its own challenge. But to add to that, her younger brother, who was born in Puerto Rico when she was two years old, died at nine from cerebral palsy.

Despite the hurdles, Dr. Becerra completed high school and moved to Miami to live with her grandmother during her college years. “She was a strong influence in my life,” she said. Her grandmother instilled in her the importance of studying something practical, so the president considered studying journalism, law, chemistry, and computer science.

That wasn’t meant to be, though. “When I was in college at the University of Miami, I took a class in electrical engineering and fell in love with it,” she said. “Before that, I didn’t know about engineering.”

Dr. Becerra ultimately earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Miami. She then worked for Florida Power & Light for six years. When she and her husband had their first son, though, she found it challenging to stay in the corporate world. “At that time, in the 1980s, it was hard to be a woman in the corporate world,” she said. “It was incredibly structured and in the power company there were few women. There was little flexibility as a mom.”

Consequently, Dr. Becerra set her sights on higher education. “At that time, academia offered more flexibility, although as a researcher you needed to work more hours,” she said.

When her son was 2 years old and her daughter 6 months old, the president embarked on a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at Florida State University (FSU). Despite the challenges of balancing her studies with raising her children, she graduated on time. Four years later, she became the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Florida State University (FSU).

Since then, Dr. Becerra has held a plethora of positions with a focus on  a growing field at the time: management information systems. She was a Sloan Scholar at MIT’s Center for Information Systems Research and worked for the National Science Foundation, NASA and the Airforce Research Labs as a principal investigator. At FSU, Dr. Becerra was a tenured professor, Entrepreneurship Center Direct, Vice Provost, Vice President, and founder of the  Knowledge Management Lab. And prior to joining Marymount University, she served as Provost and Chief Academic Officer at St. Thomas University in Miami Gardens, Florida.

If that weren’t enough, Dr. Becerra obtained one patent and four copyrights, in addition to having authored four books and numerous journal articles in the areas of knowledge management and business intelligence. She has been a sought-after speaker and presenter in enterprise systems, disaster management, and IT entrepreneurship  worldwide.

A President with Ambitious Goals

So, why, with all her expertise and background, did she decide to become president of Marymount University? According to the president, the university’s original mission in the 1800s—to educate women for work—and its current focus on career preparation was extremely attractive.

“The university was founded by the Sacred Heart of Mary Order to help educate women for work at a time when many women who fell into financial distress had no knowledge of how to survive,” said Dr. Becerra. “I felt very aligned with the university, with my values in career preparation and as an immigrant starting from scratch and having to put myself through college.”

Back in July  2018, Marymount’s board unanimously approved her presidency. Soon, Dr. Becerra became its 7th president, the first Latina and person of color to hold this post since the university’s inception.

During the interview process that led to her presidency, Dr. Becerra had been asked whether she, as president, would be willing to embark immediately on a new strategic plan for the university. Not only did she accede to the request, but once president, she was able to create a plan within six months.

“I told them that this vision would not just be mine but also that of stakeholders,” said the president. “My leadership style is one of collaboration. We created a space where we could bring our ideas and feel safe to share our perspectives.”

Their new Momentum Strategic Plan 2019-2024, which aimed to achieve lofty goals for 2024, included the following: enroll 10,000 students in undergraduate and graduate programs; retain over 90 percent of entering first college and transfer students; double four-year graduation rate to 80 percent; lead peers in student reports of High Impact Practices on the NSSE; achieve a Research II (High Research Activity) designation by the Carnegie Classification system; expand donations and annual giving; develop and implement a new Campus Masterplan; ensure efficient and effective operations using state of the art technology; and be recognized as a Carnegie Community Engagement Institution, an Ashoka Changemaker Campus, a school promoting social mobility by Times Higher Education (THE), and a leader in the Fulbright Scholars Program.

“I am happy to report to you that much of our strategic plan happened by 2022,” said Dr. Becerra. “We have become nationally recognized and have improved the university’s technology infrastructure. We have purchased luxury housing for our upper-level students and became recognized as a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) in 2022.”

Becoming a Hispanic Serving Institution

Becoming an HSI was an important milestone for Marymount, which increased its Hispanic population from 15 percent upon the president’s arrival to 25 percent (full-time faculty of color also increased from 15 to 25 percent during this same time). Dr. Becerra attributes some of this growth to working with the school’s Dreamers Club and helping her university partner with TheDream.US.

“I see myself in these students. I was an immigrant too,” she said. “Now we are the only HSI in Virginia. This also opens us to federal funding for our students and faculty and establishes us in a unique way.”

Since becoming an HSI, Marymount has received more grants and continues to raise money for scholarships for minority students who need them. “We are very generous with our scholarships, and we are focused on improving graduation rates for all of our students,” said Becerra. “Recently, we partnered with the American Latino Veteran’s Association and with Netflix. Netflix wants to expand its diversity and its engineers are offering bootcamps and internships for our students.”

Beyond financial aid, Marymount University also supports students through various other organizations, including VALHEN (Virginia Latino Higher Education Network), Common Application Direct Admissions Pilot Program, HACU (Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities), TheDream.US, and DCPD Persists.

VALHEN works with Latino students to help improve access and retention. In addition, it aims to increase the number of collaborative partners, and to create campus climates that are nurturing and culturally sensitive.

Common App Direct Admissions is a pilot program that offers guaranteed college admission to qualified students. Participating colleges set a minimum GPA for students in their home state. Common App then identifies students who meet these GPA and residency requirements using their Common App responses.

Marymount students also participate in HACU (Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities) and TheDream.US, an organization supporting Dreamers. In addition, DCPD offers students a support network of alumni in the community that helps them get through college.

Growing Recognition of Marymount’s Achievements

Dr. Becerra is proud to be the leader of a university that was listed nationally as No. 23 for ‘Campus Ethnic Diversity” and No. 20 for ‘Schools with the Most International Students,’ according to U.S. News & World Report of 2022. “We are one of the most diverse universities in the country,” she said. “Some American students want to come here to have a diverse experience they haven’t had before.”

In addition, Marymount is No. 2 in private institutions for its undergraduate nursing program and was ranked for the first time on the list of ‘Best National Universities’ in U.S. News and World Report’s 2022 Best College Rankings. Most recently, another of the university’s goals came true. Several doctoral program offerings and growth in their research capacity has resulted in the school’s reclassification by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.

Dr. Becerra has helped grow Marymount University’s success into the future, despite the great challenges of the 2020 pandemic lockdown. Her ability to bring people together today, offering a collaborative leadership style and persisting against all odds, has clearly helped.

Nonetheless, she reminds minority students not to be afraid to reach out for help. “Sometimes people get stuck in looking for a mentor like them. I had a lot of mentors and very few looked like me,” she said. “If I had waited to find a mentor like me, I would still be waiting. But just as people reach out for a hand, remember also to reach back to those coming after us.”

It seems Dr. Becerra has done exactly that as she reaches back to help others along. “We have a lot of work to do in terms of getting more Latinos and Latinas into higher education,” she concluded. “I hope this profile helps incentivize another young Latina to follow my footsteps.”