About Learning and Engagement Fellow

 Morgan Appel is an education leader, scholar, and community advocate whose work has focused on expanding access, opportunity, and innovation across the educational landscape. Appel most recently served as Assistant Dean for Education and Community Outreach (ECO) within the Division of Extended Studies at the University of California San Diego, where he provided leadership for a diverse portfolio of globally connected programming serving learners across the lifespan, from PK–12 students and educators to parents, caregivers, practitioners, administrators, and community stakeholders. Through initiatives delivered in both English and Spanish, Appel advanced efforts to strengthen university-community partnerships, expand educational access, and create pathways for lifelong learning.

Throughout his tenure in education, Appel has specialized in building ecosystems that bring together universities, schools, families, and community organizations to expand opportunity and foster meaningful engagement. His work reflects a commitment to creating sustainable pathways between formal education systems and the communities they serve. He believes transformative learning emerges not only through curriculum, but also through relationships, belonging, curiosity, and access.

At UC San Diego, Appel provided leadership for initiatives designed to connect the university with diverse communities across the region and beyond, including Parent University, Mi Universidad, Discover UC San Diego, and community-based STEAM and college access programming. These efforts supported learners, educators, and families through innovative educational opportunities spanning languages, generations, and educational experiences. His work contributed to broader institutional efforts focused on strengthening community engagement and expanding pathways to postsecondary education for historically underserved populations.

Prior to his leadership role at UC San Diego, Appel served as Director of Education Programs within the Division of Continuing Education at the University of California Irvine, following a research appointment at the Claire Trevor School of the Arts at UC Irvine. Throughout his career in postsecondary education, Appel has worked at the intersection of research, policy, practice, and community engagement, exploring how educational institutions can evolve to better serve learners, families, and communities in a rapidly changing world.

With expertise in binational education transformation and policy, Appel has collaborated with school districts, universities, research institutes, and community organizations throughout the United States and Latin America. His work has examined the role of change agentry in education and the conditions that foster meaningful and sustainable institutional transformation. His professional specialties include gifted and talented education, the neuroscience of teaching and learning, arts integration, parent and caregiver education, educational equity, STEAM learning, and organizational behavior within educational institutions.

An active writer and public scholar, Appel explores topics including the neuroscience of learning, mathematical cognition, creativity, educational equity, artificial intelligence, liminal spaces, and the evolving relationship between technology and human development. His scholarship and commentary reflect a lifelong interest in how individuals and institutions learn, adapt, navigate periods of transition, and imagine new possibilities.

Beyond his institutional leadership roles, Appel continues to contribute as an educator, advisor, and thought partner on issues related to educational innovation, human development, and community engagement. He has taught at the University of California Irvine and serves on the Board of Institutional Reviewers (BIR) for the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, contributing to statewide efforts focused on educator preparation and professional development. His service also includes leadership roles with Reality Changers, Discovery STEAM Charter School, and the CEO Advisory Committee for Promises2Kids. In 2023, Appel was appointed as a volunteer lead educator for California by the Robert and Ethel Kennedy Human Rights Center, supporting educational initiatives that advance human rights, civic engagement, and social responsibility.

At the center of Appel’s work is a belief that education is not simply the transmission of knowledge, but the cultivation of human possibility. He views education as a dynamic process shaped by curiosity, relationships, identity, and moments of transition, where individuals and communities discover pathways toward agency, belonging, and transformation. His continuing work in scholarship, writing, consulting, and collaboration reflects a commitment to advancing learning environments that are more inclusive, imaginative, and responsive to the evolving relationship between humans, technology, and the world around them.

He lives in San Diego with his wife and their dog, Jonathan Fitzgerald. A lifelong learner in both spirit and practice, Appel is also an avid LEGO builder, embracing the medium as a form of creative problem-solving and an exercise in patience, systems thinking, historical curiosity, and the enduring human pleasure of making something meaningful one piece at a time.