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Dr. Denise Nicholson is primarily responsible for leadership of programmatic execution and engineering capabilities for SoarTech’s matrixed organization, and has a unique blend of over 30 years of government, academia, and industry experience. She began her career at AFRL’s Rome Photonics Lab and rose to Deputy Director of Science & Technology at NAVAIR Training Systems Division. Dr. Nicholson founded the Applied Cognition and Training in Immersive Virtual Environments Laboratory at the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Simulation and Training, where she held joint appointments in the Modeling and Simulation Graduate Program, Industrial Engineering and Management Department and the College of Optics and Photonics/CREOL. In her transition to industry, Dr. Nicholson was the founding GM of DSCI – MESH Solutions, LLC. She has a Ph.D. and M.S. in Optical Sciences from the University of Arizona, a B.S. in Electrical Computer Engineering from Clarkson University, and is a Certified Modeling and Simulation Professional (CMSP). A graduate of Leadership Orlando, Denise is dedicated to STEM educational initiatives, serving as Coach of the Netrunners CyberPatriot Team and the STEM representative of the Central Florida NDIA Board. She is honored to be the first woman to serve as an Executive Board of Trustee at Lake Highland Preparatory School.