Megan Collett comes to the Fox Chapel Area School District as the executive director of instructional and innovative leadership. Previously, she was the director of instructional innovation at the Allegheny Intermediate Unit (AIU). In that role, Ms. Collett provided professional development to forty-two school districts in western Pennsylvania in the areas of literacy, curriculum development, and STEAM learning (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, Math). In addition to her roles as professional developer and curriculum writer, she operated the Center for Creativity (CfC) at the AIU. The CfC, funded through the Grable and Benedum Foundations, is dedicated to increasing innovation in preK-12 classrooms, and has distributed over $2.6 million in STEAM grants. Megan created the first K-12 STEAM Lending Library, generously supported by the Pittsburgh Penguins Foundation and Citrone Family Fund, where class-sets of non-consumables may be borrowed by educators after innovative professional development workshops.

Ms. Collett began her teaching career as a kindergarten teacher and taught various grades and subject areas in the District of Columbia, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Her time as a literacy and technology coach as well as a central administrator led her to a passion for providing professional development, leveraging regional and national assets for students’ growth, and infusing STEAM learning opportunities into K-12 curricula. She is currently a doctoral candidate at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and is published internationally in peer reviewed journals, such as Springer’s Early Childhood Education Journal. Megan is the co-founder of Sprout Fund Change Machine and serves on Carnegie Mellon’s CREATE Lab Satellite Network advisory board and Arts Education Collaborative Steering Committee.

As the executive director of instructional and innovative leadership, Ms. Collett builds instructional capacity, infuses innovation into current systems, and collaborates with business and community organizations to develop partnerships to the benefit of students.