Melissa Clark

Melissa Clark is an expert in policy evaluation, with more than 20 years of experience designing and overseeing rigorous evaluations to inform healthcare and education policy. She specializes in random assignment and quasi-experimental evaluation methods and in translating complex research findings into clear, actionable insights for policymakers and practitioners.

Clark has served as a principal investigator, project director, and quality assurance reviewer on numerous large-scale evaluations in health and education policy. She is currently co-principal investigator for the Evaluation of the Medicare GLP-1 Bridge Demonstration, a Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) study assessing the impacts of a high-profile initiative to expand access to lower-cost GLP-1 weight loss medications for Medicare beneficiaries. She has also led major evaluations of education interventions, including studies of Teach For America, teacher residency programs, video-based coaching for teachers, and initiatives to train and support school leaders. 

Prior to joining AIR, Clark served as Director of Education Research at Mathematica, where she oversaw the company’s portfolio of research and evaluation contracts for the U.S. Department of Education. Clark also designed and co-taught a graduate-level course in evaluation methods at Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs.