Dr. Hanson is faculty in the Department of Interprofessional Healthcare Studies and manages the Health Professions Education Program which offers a Master of Science and post-baccalaureate certificate in Health Professions Education. She also works as a Healthcare Simulation Educator in the Department of Healthcare Simulation. Dr. Hanson holds a Doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction Leadership for Adult Education from Aurora University and a Master of Art in Teaching with an emphasis on Educational Technology from Webster University.

Her primary area of interest is the effective integration of technology for teaching and learning. She is also interested in finding ways to continuously improve the quality of both face-to-face and online education and is a Quality Matters™ peer reviewer as well as a certified Six Sigma Green Belt.

Prior to working in higher education, Marilyn worked as quality engineer/manager where she integrated systems to provide real-time process monitoring and data collection and developed quality systems training curriculum including training for statistical analysis, quality auditing, problem solving, and six sigma process improvement principles.