Meet Megan.

I’m Megan Brittany-Fruia Zara, M.Ed., and my work lives in the space where learning, systems, care, and change meet.

Across K–12, higher education, libraries, instructional design, digital learning, open education, and faculty development, I have spent my career helping people make sense of complicated things and turn good intentions into usable structures. I have been a classroom teacher, digital learning specialist, adjunct instructor, open education librarian, curriculum designer, facilitator, program builder, and the person quietly asking, “What would make this easier to enter, easier to understand, and easier to sustain?”

Most recently, I served as the Open Education Librarian at The University of Texas at Arlington, where I led and supported open education initiatives connected to OER adoption, faculty development, course materials affordability, open publishing, microcredentials, mini-grants, and campus-wide open education infrastructure. That work became the foundation for my Texas OER Fellowship capstone project, Designing for Enterability: Open Education in Practice, which explores how open education programs can better support the “messy middle” between interest and implementation.

I care about access, equity, and belonging in ways that are practical, not performative. I am interested in the structures that determine whether people can actually participate: clear pathways, humane pacing, documentation, feedback loops, support that does not depend on one heroic person, and systems that recognize the real conditions people are working inside.

I am also beginning doctoral work in Leadership and Change, where I am continuing to explore questions that have shaped my practice for years: How do institutions make care operational? How do we design systems that support people before they burn out? How do access, disability, documentation, leadership, open education, and organizational change connect? And how do we build learning spaces where people can enter, contribute, lead, and remain whole?

Today, my work continues through The Open Practice Academy, where I develop curriculum, frameworks, tools, and professional learning experiences for educators, librarians, instructional designers, nonprofits, and mission-driven organizations. My current work focuses on open education, open practice leadership, documentation-as-scaffolding, care as infrastructure, faculty development, curriculum design, and the small structures that help people move from “this matters” to “I can actually do this.”

I am a writer, strategist, facilitator, and maker of odd little creative universes. I like work with heart, clarity, humor, and a little edge. I believe serious work does not have to be sterile, and meaningful change should not require people to abandon their humanity to prove they are committed.

If you are exploring open education, building professional learning, designing a program, rethinking how people enter your systems, or trying to make meaningful work more usable and sustainable, I would be glad to connect. You do not need to arrive with a fully formed plan. Some of the best work begins with a question, a stuck place, or a sense that something important needs a better structure around it.