Megan Allen

Megan Allen, PhD, is the Associate Director of Virtual Exchange and COIL Initiatives at the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U). As part of AAC&U’s Office of Global Citizenship for Campus, Community, and Careers, Dr. Allen leads efforts to expand equitable, high-impact global learning opportunities across diverse institutional contexts. She collaborates with cross-functional teams to integrate virtual exchange and Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) into curricula, broadening student access to transformative global engagement experiences.

An advocate for interdisciplinary education and international collaboration, Allen is a two-time U.S. Fulbright grant recipient. Early in her career, she served as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Thailand, where she developed culturally responsive teaching materials and supported English language development for youth and adult learners. More recently, as a U.S. Fulbright Student Researcher in Chile, she partnered with faculty across the United States and Latin America to build interdisciplinary COIL partnerships and assess their impact on student learning. Allen has also worked extensively with refugee and international learner populations as an ESL instructor and curriculum developer, both domestically and abroad.

Prior to joining AAC&U, Allen conducted research on undergraduate interdisciplinary curricula at the University of Arizona, where she supported the redesign of the general education program and disseminated best practices through presentations, workshops, and publications. Her work demonstrates a commitment to advancing meaningful opportunities for students and educators to collaborate across borders and disciplines.

Most recently, Allen served as a Project Management & Strategic Initiatives Fellow for the DC Public Charter School Board (DC PCSB), where she guided organizational planning efforts, facilitated cross departmental workgroups, and led an initiative to support rigorous and equitable accountability practices for public charter students in Washington, DC. In addition to her work at AAC&U, Allen is a trustee of the Edwards Mother Earth Foundation, focused on mitigating the impact of climate disruption.

Allen holds a Ph.D. in Higher Education from the University of Arizona, an M.A. in Development Studies from the International Institute of Social Studies in The Netherlands, and a B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of Arizona. She is also a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) through the Project Management Institute (PMI).

Areas of Expertise

• Virtual Exchange & COIL Program Implementation
• Research & Publication in Higher Education
• Institutional Strategy for Scaling Global Learning
• Interdisciplinary & Global Learning
• Faculty Coaching & Professional Development
• Assessment & Evaluation of Teaching and Learning Pedagogies
• Cross-Cultural Program Implementation
• Project & Grant Management
• ESL Instruction & Curriculum Development