Marilyn Morgan Westner

Marilyn Morgan Westner has a diverse and extensive work experience. Marilyn is currently the Co-founder and Chief Content Officer at Xander, a company that uses augmented reality to enhance communication for individuals with hearing loss. Previously, Marilyn worked at Harvard Business School as a Research Associate, where they conducted research in entrepreneurship and frontier technology and produced high-quality content for MBA students, executives, and innovators. Marilyn also co-founded and served as the Head of Content Strategy and Learning Design at HBS Accelerate, an online education platform that provided free education and tools for entrepreneurs. Prior to their roles at Harvard, Marilyn worked as a Consulting Learning Designer & Content Producer for an online entrepreneurship project, where they created and produced relevant educational content for entrepreneurs. Marilyn also worked as an Instructional Design Consultant at Educational Technology Services, where they co-created learning architecture and developed content for instructor-led programs. Additionally, they served as the Director of the Archives Program & Lecturer in History at UMass Boston, where they taught classes, coached graduate students, and designed interactive online exhibits. Marilyn was also an Instructional Design Consultant at Brown University School of Professional Studies, where they contributed to building e-learning courses and created instructional guides for the Executive MBA program. Earlier in their career, Marilyn worked as a Special Program Instructor at Harvard Summer School, where they created and taught a course on gender, food, and culture in American history. Marilyn also served as an Archivist at the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, where they arranged and curated archival collections, assisted researchers, and created content for various platforms. Finally, Marilyn worked as an Adjunct Lecturer in the History Department at UMass Boston. Overall, Marilyn brings a wealth of expertise in research, content production, educational design, and teaching to their current role at Xander.

Marilyn Morgan Westner obtained a Ph.D. in History from the University of Maine in 2007. In addition, they also earned the MITx Verified Certificate for Implementation and Evaluation of Educational Technology from edX in September 2016. Marilyn further enhanced their skills by obtaining a Content Marketing Certification and completing the Inbound course from HubSpot in January 2017.