Jessica Heppen, a nationally recognized expert in education research, policy, and practice, is the president & CEO of AIR. Dr. Heppen been with AIR for 20 years and, in that time, has held several key roles during her tenure.
Bobbi Newman is a principal researcher and director of AIR’s practice area for standards and assessments. She has more than 15 years of experience in research and evaluation of school reform efforts. Dr. Newman has worked at every level of the education system, from the classroom to the state. As ...
Mary Kay Dugan is a managing technical assistant consultant at AIR. She is passionate about identifying evidence-based promising practices and translating them into policies and effective programs focused on underserved populations including disadvantaged youth and young adults. Dugan has over 30 years of experience helping federal, state, and local governments ...
Christal Ramos is a principal researcher in the health division. She has over 16 years of experience implementing and studying policies and interventions to improve health equity, particularly for people with Medicaid or who are uninsured, and for communities of color. She is experienced in leading mixed-methods research, evaluation and ...
Kirsten Firminger is a principal researcher at AIR. With a passion for understanding consumers’ perspectives of health care, she has worked extensively on gathering information from patients about their care experiences. She is an expert at developing and testing materials for use by the public, including presenting information on health ...
Jaleh Behroozi Soroui is the director of the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) at AIR. She directs PIAAC team at AIR in providing expertise, technical assistance, and management support for the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) of the U.S. Department of Education in the development ...
Dr. Markus Broer is a managing researcher at AIR, where he is currently serving as the project director of the Research, Analysis and Psychometric Support component of a larger project (ESSIN Task 14). ESSIN Task 14 supports the National Center for Education Statistics with expert advice and technical assistance on ...
Ebru Erberber is a principal researcher at AIR. Dr. Erberber has more than 20 years of experience in large-scale comparative studies of educational achievement. In her current position, she serves as the project leader for the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the Teaching and Learning International ...
Amy Syvertsen is a principal researcher in AIR’s Youth, Family, and Community Development area. Dr. Syvertsen is an applied developmental scientist, and a content expert in positive youth development in childhood and adolescence with an emphasis on the developmental processes and contextual supports that undergird strong youth-adult relationships and civic ...
Tamara Linkow is a senior director at AIR. In this role, she provides direction and support across AIR’s portfolio of federal education evaluation studies. With over 15 years of experience in research and evaluation, she has led impact and descriptive studies that inform foundation, state, and federal decisions.
Her areas ...