Open Education Global is excited to extend a warm welcome to Karen Cangialosi as the new Director of Membership. On her staff biography, you can read all about her many career accomplishments, especially in leading open education initiatives.
As a way to introduce her to those of you who do not know her, we thought we would put her under the OEG spotlight.
What role has the Open movement played in your personal journey?
There is no short answer to this question for me. Discovering the world of open completely transformed my thinking as a teacher and as a scholar; it really had a deep impact on every aspect of my professional life as a professor. I wrote about my ‘origin story’ in a blog post on my website called ‘Into the Open’ in 2016. I attended my first Open Education conference in 2015 in Vancouver and then came to see open for its revolutionary potential to transform higher education. Open prompted me to make major shifts in my teaching practices (after 20+ yrs of teaching) and to move into faculty development leadership at Keene State College. Spurred by my writing and connections in Open, I began to be invited to present keynotes and workshops around the US and Canada about Open Education, particularly about Open Pedagogy.
As a STEM professor immersed in the open movement, I was inspired to write an article called But you can’t do that in a STEM course!– which was published in Hybrid Pedagogy and led to my eventual recognition as a leader in STEM Ed transformation and Open Education more broadly. The connections between STEM and Open then brought me into contact with some amazing colleagues at Bates College, especially Dr. Carrie Diaz-Eaton, and we founded the RIOS institute (Institute for Racially Just, Inclusive, and Open STEM education). RIOS really pulls together the strands of Open Education, Open Science, STEM education, and Social Justice work- all of which are very near and dear to my heart.
When the opportunity to become Program Director for RLOE arose, I took on that position thinking it would just be a 2 yr. leave of absence from Keene State, but I ended up jumping in fully and taking early retirement from Keene State to continue to focus my efforts on open education, professional development, social justice work, and institutional transformation. As with each of my decisions and steps towards more fully focusing on Open Education, working with my incredible RLOE colleagues has had a major impact on my life. I have learned so much from them and our experiences running RLOE together. And to now transition into a staff role at OE Global is an exciting progression of that trajectory that I have been following since discovering open!
What does joining the OE Global team mean to you?
I am extraordinarily grateful for this opportunity to be part of a team that has made major contributions to Open Education across the world. Although I miss teaching, I am excited to be working with Open colleagues that have so much passion, creativity, and energy for doing the work of Open. I am especially grateful for the collaborative atmosphere of the team and the focus on continuing to improve experiences for our members.
What do you hope to achieve with this position?
My greatest aspiration for this position is to find ways to more fully engage our members as participants in and drivers of our work in OE Global. I plan to learn more about the diversity of our existing membership in terms of geographic regions, organizational types, missions, positions, and lived experiences, and to ascertain (via direct conversations) what each individual and organization would like to obtain from being an OE Global member.
Together with the team, we are enhancing our approaches to communicating the value of Open more widely across the world and extending our invitation to new members that share our goals and may join us in the future.
I am thrilled with Dr. Andreia Inamorato’s vision of strengthening global outreach and developing networks across geographical borders. Building strong membership identity and connections is an important pathway toward this vision.
Welcome Karen to the team
Click on reply to ask Karen a burning question, whether it is membership-related, open education leadership or something else entirely!
