Dr. Marilyn Powers has over 20 years’ experience in applying technological advances to education and training. A licensed professional engineer, Dr. Powers started her career by combining her love of healthcare with engineering. Since then she has completed doctoral studies in virtual reality surgical simulation, was awarded an NSERC post-doctoral position to further the field of haptics in surgical training and obtained a patent for developing force-feedback surgical scissors used in the first neurosurgical simulator in the world. Hired as the first operational person at CAE, Inc to enter the healthcare market, Dr. Powers worked with aviation specialists and many potential customers to help bring CAE Healthcare into existence. During her tenure there, she lead the development of Simulation Training Centres, most notably at the Michener Institute in Toronto and the University of Montreal Medical School. She also lead many other initiatives in simulation products and services. Prior to coming to Mohawk, Dr. Powers gained expertise in developing educational technology for D2L as a Senior Product Manager specializing in assessment and learning outcomes, further strengthening her abilities to apply technology to education and training.