Marla E. Hacker started at OSU-Cascades in 2001 as an associate professor. During her time at OSU-Cascades she served as associate dean and then as dean of academic programs until 2016 when she returned to the classroom full-time. She is now Associate Professor Emeritus of Engineering.

Prior to returning to the university to earn her doctorate at Virginia Tech, Marla was a plant manager at one of Procter and Gamble's largest manufacturing facilities.

Marla taught, created, advised, and applied methods for achieving organizational performance improvement through performance measurement systems, project management tools, customer service interventions, total quality management, and high performance work team initiatives. Her work has been published in many journals including: IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management; Operations & Production Management; Quality Management Journal; Public Sector Management; National Productivity Review; Managing Service Quality; Measuring Business Excellende; and Team Performance Management.

Her experience includes leading and facilitating improvement activities in public, not-for profit, government, and international organizations. Her sponsor organizations have included Procter and Gamble, the U.S. Postal Service, the Oregon State Bar, Bonneville Power Administration, the City of Beaverton, DAT Services, National Grocers Co. Ltd. of Canada, Volvo-GM, Siemens Automotive, Botswana Africa Public Service, The Oregon Economic Development Department, Hewlett-Packard, United Way, and the Kollmorgen Motion Technologies Group.