Deep space engineer and tech innovator Mary Spio grew up in Ghana and was 16 when her parents saved up enough money to send her to the United States. Her first job was at a McDonald’s. Since then, she has served in the Air Force and created content and technologies for global titans such as Boeing, Lucas Films, Universal Music, Miami Children’s Hospital, and Microsoft Xbox.

Today, she is the founder & Chief Visionary of CEEK VR, a developer of innovative content solutions and tools for distributing virtual-reality and augmented-reality experiences and sits on the boards of Oculus VR for Good and Amazon Launchpad.

Mary Spio is also the author of It’s Not Rocket Science: 7 Game-Changing Traits for Uncommon Success and is best known for creating and holding patents on the technology used to digitally release feature films over satellite and for demographically targeted distribution of cinema content (alternate endings). The technology was commercialized via Boeing Digital Cinema and Lucas Films. Today the technology is widely used as an accepted, cost saving, modern alternative for scores of major films.

She is named alongside Oprah in NBC News’s 100 History makers in the making.

Mary holds a Masters in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Georgia Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Syracuse University. Spio is a recipient of the prestigious Yueh-Ying Hu Memorial National Award for Innovation, Boeing Outstanding Achievement in Electrical Engineering Award and Essence Magazine’s New Power Generation.

An accomplished author, Mary Spio is a contributor to the New York Times Bestselling Series, Chicken Soup for the Soul.