Meet Meaghan

From Classroom to Community

Background and Philosophy

Before joining Loyola Marymount University’s iDEAL Institute, Meaghan Crowley-Sullivan taught second and third grade in both Denver, Colorado, and San Jose, California, during years of significant instructional transformation. Her Catholic schools were among the first in nation to implement Expeditionary Learning and Blended Learning models, an experiences that gave her an intimate understanding of the possibilities and growing pains of innovation in Catholic education.

Teaching through those transitions shaped Meaghan’s conviction that true educational change must honor both the learner and the teacher. She witnessed how professional development could either empower or overwhelm, and how thoughtful design, clear structures, and empathy for teachers’ lived realities could determine whether an initiative took root. Those experiences deepened her desire to bridge the gap between research and classroom practice, helping educators translate new ideas into strategies that truly serve students.

A woman with long black hair is smiling and standing at a table in a conference room filled with people working on laptops and tablets. The room has a decorative lit tree on the wall in the background.

At the core of her philosophy is the belief that teaching is an act of formation. It shapes not only what students know, but who they become as thinkers, creators, and people. Whether through technology integration, blended learning, or leadership development, Meaghan approaches every project with the same goal: to help schools nurture both excellence and humanity in learning.

Her work invites educators to see innovation not as a departure from tradition, but as an extension of it and an opportunity to reveal God’s presence in every learner and in the creative act of teaching itself.

Education & Awards

University of Notre Dame
M.A., Educational Leadership (Remick 18)
M.Ed., Teaching and Learning (ACE 16)
B.A., American Studies, Minor in Education, Schooling and Society.

Santa Clara University
Certificate in Blending Learning

Meaghan is also a proud graduate of Saint Francis High School (Mountain View, CA) and Saint Simon Catholic School (Los Altos, CA).

  • Presented to a University of Notre Dame alum for outstanding leadership, innovation, and commitment to advancing Catholic education.

  • Received for effectiveness in blended instruction while teaching in San Jose, California.

  • Recognized for exceptional instructional design and innovative approaches to history education.

  • Honored for excellence in Project-Based Learning design while teaching in Denver, Colorado.

Instructional Design Work

Meaghan Crowley-Sullivan designs instructional experiences that bring together research, creativity, and faith. Her work spans classrooms, universities, dioceses, and networks, but is united by a single goal: to help educators make teaching more intentional, innovative, and human.

Professional Learning

After years of sitting through professional development that felt disconnected from the realities of the classroom, Meaghan made it her mission to design learning experiences that teachers and leaders actually look forward to.

  • Meaghan has written and refined more than seventy-five workshops and multi-session learning pathways supporting iDEAL’s Academy of Blended Learning, the AI in Education Series, and specialized tracks for multigrade and high school contexts. Each sequence blends pedagogy and practicality, helping teachers and leaders translate research into meaningful classroom practice. Her sessions focus on authentic engagement, differentiated instruction, purposeful technology use, and the human side of teaching in an age of innovation.

  • She regularly shares her work at national and diocesan conferences, contributing to the growing conversation around Catholic education and innovation. She has presented at NCEA, ISTE, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ C3 Conference, and the BLICSS Symposium, among others. Her presentations are known for balancing insight, application, and research.

    Recent and representative topics include:

    • Forming Saints in a Digital World: A Catholic Approach to AI and Innovation

    • Ready to Learn, Ready for the Future: Executive Functioning in the Age of AI

    • Experience, Connect, Reflect: iDEAL’s Approach to Professional Development

    • From Data to Dialogue: Student–Teacher Conferencing for Personalized Feedback and Growth

    • Tech It or Leave It: Teaching as Jesus Did in Today’s Classroom

    • Frameworks for Technology Integration

    • Planning for Instructional Flexibility

    (A complete list of conference presentations is available upon request.)

  • Meaghan provides individualized coaching for teachers, principals, and school leaders across multiple dioceses and partner networks. Grounded in partnership and reflection, her coaching helps educators turn ideas into lasting practice through regular touchpoints and walkthroughs that build clarity, confidence, and growth.

    Her work spans blended learning, technology integration, and everyday instruction, guiding educators as they design meaningful rotations, differentiate for diverse learners, and use technology to enhance engagement and efficiency. Whether supporting a teacher or a leadership team, Meaghan helps schools cultivate excellence, innovation, and faith-filled teaching that endures.

Courses and Programs

As part of her work with Loyola Marymount University’s iDEAL Institute, Meaghan designs and teaches in several professional learning courses and certification programs offered through LMU Extension.

  • Meaghan is the program lead and primary instructor for a year-long four-course professional learning sequence that prepares individuals to be certified as technology-integration specialists and teachers leaders for their school sites. After co-teaching early cohorts, Meaghan entirely redesigned the program in 2021 to align with the ISTE standards for coaching, current technology tools, and research on best practices in instructional coaching, digital pedagogy, online teaching, and professional learning design.

  • Recognizing that sustainable innovation depends on strong school leadership, Meaghan co-developed the Blended Learning Principal Academy, a yearlong leadership and certification experience for Catholic school principals and administrative teams. Alongside institute colleagues and experienced principals from LMU’s partner network, she helped envision the program’s purpose, structure, and outcomes. Drawing from the framework and resources she had created for the TISC Program, Meaghan contributed core learning materials and design elements. She supported the first cohort through its launch. She participated in facilitating the second, ensuring that the program reflected the same balance of research, practicality, and mission alignment that defines all of her work.

  • Most recently, Meaghan led the development of iDEAL’s Self-Paced AI in Education Course, a ten-module professional development course designed to help educators explore the promise and responsibility of artificial intelligence in teaching and learning. She outlined the course structure, authored multiple modules, supported the creation of others, and edited the full series for coherence and clarity. The course emphasizes ethical AI use, practical application, and student-centered strategies, equipping teachers to begin to integrate emerging technologies with wisdom and purpose.

Creative Design and Resources

Beyond workshops and courses, Meaghan develops practical tools and experiences that help educators sustain innovation and continue growing in their craft long after professional learning sessions end.

  • Meaghan is the founder and co-organizer of the annual BlendED Mini-Conference, a national virtual gathering that celebrates teacher creativity and blended learning in Catholic schools. Each year, she helps shape the event’s theme, select speakers, and design the participant experience, ensuring that every session highlights actionable strategies, amplifies teacher voice, and fosters authentic collaboration among educators.

  • Meaghan has designed an extensive collection of digital classroom templates, instructional tools, and interactive activities that have been used in professional learning and classrooms across the country. Her work bridges research and practice, translating complex instructional ideas into clear, ready-to-use designs that save teachers time while deepening student engagement.

    Her growing library now includes more than 125 original resources, ranging from lesson exemplars, AI-literacy activities, and religious instruction pathways to blended-learning station planners, differentiation tools, and digital choice boards. Many were developed for iDEAL Institute workshops or diocesan trainings, while others are part of her independent educator collection available on Teachers Pay Teachers.

  • Meaghan is the author of The Catholic Companion Framework for Technology and Innovation, a faith-rooted guide that helps Catholic educators and families navigate technology, artificial intelligence, and innovation in the light of faith.

    Grounded in Church teaching and Catholic social thought, the framework centers on five interwoven strands (Imago Dei, Co-Creation and Stewardship, Moral Conscience and Discernment, Communion and Solidarity, and Wonder, Mystery, and Awe). Together, these strands offer instructional goals and practical starting points that build shared language and direction for engaging technology through the lens of faith across classrooms, homes, and communities.

  • A woman standing in front of a green door with a colorful poster that reads "Blending Technology in SO Our Students Can Stand Out!"
  • A teacher and two students looking at a tablet at a round classroom table, with classroom posters and a door with vocabulary words on the wall in the background.
  • A woman with long dark hair smiling and holding a clear glass award outdoors in front of green bushes and a house with white siding and windows.
  • A teacher standing and laughing with four adult women sitting at desks in a classroom, some working on laptops, with colorful educational posters on the wall.
  • Students in a classroom, one girl and two boys, sitting at desks with tablets or notebooks, smiling and talking with a female teacher who is standing and engaging with them.
  • Three women are gathered around a table with laptops and a card, in a bright room with windows. One woman is standing, and the other two are sitting, looking at the card and smiling.
  • Colorful sticky notes on a gray wall, with various notes including worksheets, reminders, and plans for activities or projects.
  • A woman presents at a conference, with a PowerPoint slide about usage questions projected on a screen. The room is filled with attendees seated at tables, some working on laptops, listening to the speaker.

“Blending technology in, so students can stand out.”