Dr. Powers Peterson is Associate Professor of Pathology. She received her M.D degree from The Medical College of Georgia, and went on to Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, where she divided her time among diagnostic work in anatomic and clinical pathology, research in hematopathology, and teaching. She was appointed director of the Laboratory of Clinical Hematology in 1990.

While at WCMC-NY, Dr. Peterson pioneered the use of problem-based learning in the pathology course, and made a major contribution to a computer-based pathology teaching lab.

Following appointments at medical schools elsewhere in the U.S, Dr. Peterson returned to Weill Cornell, but this time to its new Medical College in Qatar, where she has pioneered the creation of a virtual microscope system. Dr. Peterson participates regularly in the activities of the American Society for Clinical Pathology and is a member of the organizing committee for the annual meeting.

Her teaching activities include directing the Basis of Disease course and co-directing or participating as teaching faculty in the other four basic science courses. She is responsible for overseeing the 4th year teaching electives. Dr. Peterson is also responsible for directing the Virtual Microscopy Project, an important teaching tool used in the 1st and 2nd years of the Medical Program.

In her capacity as the Acting Associate Dean for the Basic Science Curriculum, Dr. Peterson is responsible for the implementation and delivery of the basic science curriculum in the Medical Program.

Dr. Peterson has been the Chair of the Basic Science Curriculum Committee science September 2006.