Karen Cangialosi

Director of Open Education and Open Science, RIOS Institute

Karen Cangialosi is a passionate change agent, dedicated educator, and student advocate with national recognition in open education, STEM, digital pedagogy, and student-centered learning. As a Professor of Biology at Keene State College (now emeritus), she brought open pedagogy and OER into the biology curriculum and led campus-wide initiatives to make science education more affordable and inclusive. She now serves as Director of Open Education & Open Science at the RIOS Institute which promotes racial justice and openness in STEM education. Her work centers on transforming higher ed systems to better serve students and especially marginalized students. She considers the juxtaposition of AI in her Educause article, An AI-Driven Optimism for Transforming Higher Education (It's Not What You Think) and explores the relationship between Open Pedagogy and AI in her work in STEM education transformation.

Dr. Cangialosi has held leadership roles with Every Learner Everywhere and Open Education Global’s RLOE project, focusing on equitable learning, digital transformation, and shifting institutional power. She continues to advocate for integrating Open Science and Open Education to reimagine how we teach, learn, and collaborate in STEM, always with a focus on transparency, justice, and meaningful change. To that end, she is project director for the OCTOPUS project (Open Collaboration for Transformative Open Pedagogy to support Undergraduate Open Science Education) a collaborative effort between the BioQUEST Curriculum Consortium and the RIOS Institute. 

Areas of Expertise

  • Teaching
  • Faculty Development
  • Open Education, Open Pedagogy, OER
  • AI in Open Education
  • Open Science
  • STEM Education reform
  • Critical/cautious, yet optimistic, approach to AI