Pilar Abuin is the Senior Director of Educational & Engagement Technology at the Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning, where she has worked since January 2014. Her team owns and supports two of the more community-facing platforms used at the university: Canvas and Yale Connect. Canvas serves as Yale’s central digital hub for teaching and learning, bringing together the learning management system and a broad ecosystem of integrated applications used by faculty, students, and staff across Yale. Yale Connect is the university’s community engagement platform, supporting groups, events, and messaging.
As AI rapidly reshapes the educational and engagement technology landscape, Pilar’s work increasingly focuses on helping Yale evaluate and adopt emerging tools responsibly. Her team considers not only how new technologies can support teaching, learning, and community engagement, but also how well they protect privacy, strengthen security, and ensure accessibility.
Before joining Yale, Pilar worked at New York University and Columbia University, where she helped faculty use educational technology. She holds a Master of Arts in Instructional Technology & Media from Teachers College (Columbia University) and a Bachelor of Arts from Columbia College (Columbia University), where she studied Computer Science and Art History.
Outside of work, Pilar leads a local Girl Scout troop and is an avid reader with a soft spot for science fiction and fantasy. She also enjoys exploring parks across Connecticut on hikes with her husband and two children.