Rita serves as the ASU Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering (FSE) Dean's Office, Infrastructure and Safety Team - Assistant Director. In this role, she provides oversight and coordination of the Infrastructure and Safety for FSE Schools, Programs, Teaching Labs, Research Labs, and Classroom settings.
Rita has extensive experience in Cross-Functional Engineering Disciplines with 26 years in the Semiconductor Manufacturing Industry; 15 years at Intel Corporation, and 11 years in the University-Research setting at ASU’s Flexible Electronics & Display Center (FEDC). She provided Safety oversight as an EHS Compliance Officer (CO) at FEDC supporting the Fab and Labs. She held Technical Leadership roles in Project, Team, and Staff Management.
She served as the Research Labs Manager, with ASU FSE for the Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering (ECEE) department. In this role, she supported 85 Research Labs, 82 Faculty, ~30 Research Staff and ~3000 Students. She provided support for Facilities Utilization, Planning, and Lab Management. She was on the FSE ETS Facilities Team providing Lab Renovation support, Engineering Process Flow Reviews, and Lab Design Reviews; contributing to significant cost reductions with functional review and Building Capabilities. She also was the ECEE Research Labs EHS CO. She worked with Research Teams to improve Safety Standards and Research Activities in Labs. She was instrumental in positively affecting Safety Trends for ECEE Research Labs; noted in ASU EHS Lab Inspections, and Lab Personnel Training completion rates.
At Intel, she led several Design Engineering, Test Engineering, and Task Force Teams. She provided Technical Leadership in Design for Test and Test Automation that spanned all Design Teams at Intel. She Managed diverse Teams of Design Engineers (3-14 Engineers) spanning multiple projects, across multiple reporting structures (3) and varying international geographic locations (4) while meeting and exceeding project deliverable deadlines. Her roles ranged from Product Engineer, Test Engineer, Test Automation Engineer, Architecture Validation Engineer, and Design Engineer with focus on Design for Testability, Design and Test Automation Engineering for Development and Production of various Microcontrollers, ASICs, and Core Microprocessors (Automotive Engine and Braking Microcontrollers; Custom ICs; Video Processor chips; Pentium®, Pentium+®, and Itanium® Microprocessors).
Her contributions at the FEDC included managing Projects, Team Members, and Team Deliverables spanning 11 years of service. Her roles included Test Engineer, Build Lab Manager, and Build Team Manager where she supported Testing, Design for Testability, Design Reviews, and Build Support for all Prototype Development / Testing and Customer Deliverables.
Rita has 8 years of experience in Environmental Engineering in multiple job function roles: Technical Project Manager, Environmental Engineer, and Office Manager. She was instrumental in setting up business operations in the East Valley. She provided Engineering and Project Management skills as a Consultant. This office grew from 3 Employees to 14 Technical Staff (Engineers, Technicians, Geologists and Support Staff), while she managed the office and worked as a Technical Engineer/ Project Manager. She led the Startup of a local Environmental Engineering Consulting Company as Owner, Environmental Engineer, and Project Manager.
She is a long time Arizona resident, and has been at ASU, as a student, and as an employee with 16 years of service.