Let's Meet ... Pia Cronin

Headshot of Pia smiling at the camera. Wearing a black top with a cream background.

Let’s Meet… Pia Cronin

Faculty Digital Learning Manager

If you’ve been wondering who’s behind a lot of the digital learning coordination happening across the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, it’s time to meet Pia Cronin.

Pia joined her current role as Faculty Digital Learning Manager in January 2026, supporting digital learning across Barts Cancer Institute, William Harvey, Blizard and Wolfson. While she’s still relatively new to the post, she’s already been busy getting to know a lot of programmes, people and processes.

A Queen Mary journey (with a lockdown twist)

Pia’s Queen Mary story started back in January 2020, when she joined CCLS as a temporary administrator — just weeks before the first lockdown. She was quickly made permanent and became heavily involved in supporting QMplus, working on induction pages and online course content alongside learning technology colleagues.

Since then, Pia has moved through a number of roles, including Student Support Officer at CCLS and Education Manager at Barts Cancer Institute. Before Queen Mary, she held pastoral roles in senior management in secondary education, and decided to make the jump into higher education after moving to London.

Following a faculty restructure, Pia had a choice of three roles and decided that Digital Learning Manager was the best fit — combining her experience in education, project management and working closely with digital learning teams.

What’s it like being a Faculty Digital Learning Manager?

“In short — lots of meetings,” Pia laughs.

A big part of the role involves coordinating people and projects, rather than hands-on tech work. Pia line manages nine team members, including Digital Learning Officers based within the institutes as well as other specialist roles sitting within the Digital Education Studio. She spends much of her time in meetings, one‑to‑ones and planning sessions, making sure work across the four institutes is aligned and moving in the same direction.

One of Pia’s biggest challenges so far has been understanding how differently each institute operates — from programme structures to existing digital practices. One of her major ongoing projects is a QMplus tidy‑up, focusing on:

• Making course areas more consistent
• Implementing a new template designed in collaboration between the Digital Education Studio and TELT.
• Streamlining student and staff experiences

This work also involves close collaboration with the Faculty Quality and Programmes teams to clarify responsibilities and improve workflows.

Life outside of QMUL

Outside of work, Pia has a rather impressive side role — she’s also a Wembley Stadium tour guide.

At weekends, she gives behind-the-scenes tours to the public, and on match days she sometimes takes VIPs around the stadium while players are warming up on the pitch. One of the most unusual questions she’s ever been asked?

“Why isn’t there any bird poo on the seats?”

The answer: sparrowhawks live in the roof and scare the pigeons away.

Quick questions with Pia

• Favourite animal: Cat
• Favourite app: Paprika (a brilliant app that strips online recipes down to just the useful bits)
• Hidden talent: Ballroom dancing — especially the samba
• Strictly fan? Absolutely (Strictly-themed parties included)
• Superpower of choice: Reading people’s minds (useful at work… maybe)
• Favourite holiday destination: Lucca, Tuscany
• Fun fact: Pia lived in Rome for two years while studying in Italy

Pia brings a great mix of education experience, organisational skills and enthusiasm for digital learning to the role — plus some surprisingly useful stadium trivia.

If you see Pia in a meeting, on Teams, or talking about QMplus templates… now you know a bit more about the person behind the role.

Thank you, Pia, for taking part in this month's Let's Meet and giving everyone an insight into your role and a bit about yourself.