SPIN 2026: Charting New Paths

Karen Cangliosi

Dr. Karen Cangialosi is a passionate change agent, dedicated educator, and student advocate with national recognition in open education, STEM ed, and digital pedagogy. As a Professor of Biology at Keene State College (now emeritus), she brought open education 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, especially marginalized students. Her Educause article, An AI-Driven Optimism for Transforming Higher Education (It’s Not What You Think) considers the juxtaposition of AI in education. 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. 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.