Joowon MacDowell is an educator, entrepreneur and subject matter expert in immersive technologies, such as VR and AR, and a proponent of serious games within healthcare. Prior to joining SMU Guildhall, she completed a Biodesign fellowship at Texas Medical Center Innovation Institute (TMCx) as one of the experts in a digital health group focusing on discovering healthcare's unmet needs and creating feasible business cases. She previously co-founded an edtech company, LevelUp Camp, focused on empowering kids and adults with STEAM based curricula to prepare them for the future; the program taught hands-on virtual reality, augmented reality, as well as app and web development.
Joowon co-founded Oncomfort Inc and served as a CTO, where she was responsible for product development, operations, building a highly cohesive team, and creating partnerships and opportunities. Joowon focused on developing fully immersive virtual reality content consisting of five products for both pediatric and adult cancer patients, helping them to manage their anxiety and pain in perioperative settings through clinical hypnosis and positive distraction through gamification.
She was a former lecturer for the Computer Science department at University of Houston and at the Art Institute of Houston, teaching undergraduate and graduate students game art and animation with an emphasis on game design.