Kelly Lack

Kelly Lack focuses on rigorous examinations of educational policies and programs and on strategies to help students transition to and succeed in postsecondary education. Lack has extensive experience leading, designing, and conducting studies for federal, nonprofit, and foundation clients. Throughout her work, she has used a wide variety of study designs and analytical techniques, including randomized controlled trial designs; quasi-experimental methods such as comparative interrupted time series designs, difference-in-difference approaches, propensity score matching, and coarsened exact matching; and descriptive methods. 

Prior to joining AIR, Lack worked at Abt Global for over 9 years. In that role, she led and managed studies, designed studies, oversaw data collection and analysis, led report development, collected stakeholder feedback, managed budgets and schedules, and conducted other activities. She recently led impact evaluations that examined a technology-based math tool for elementary school students and their families, a PreK-12 STEM Pathway program, and a coaching program for college students. 

In addition, she has managed and contributed to study design and analysis activities for U.S. Department of Education (ED) contracts examining strategies related to dual enrollment, federal student loan counseling, and the Second Chance Pell program, and has also worked on ED evaluations of a college transition texting program and of an elementary school academic language program. In addition, while working at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Lack helped conduct a multi-site experimental impact and cost study of an online introductory statistics course and a qualitative study of barriers to adoption of online courses in postsecondary education.

Lack has also led and managed studies in nutrition, income security, and health. These include studies related to SNAP benefits and to school nutrition manager training, to the socioeconomic characteristics of U.S. immigrants, and to the treatment of PTSD in primary care settings, for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and U.S. Department of Defense, respectively. 

Lack has published in several journals, including The Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Research in Higher Education, Education Next, Current Developments in Nutrition, and Medical Care, and helped write a book on online learning in postsecondary education. She holds a PMP certification.