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.
Jillian Reynolds is a senior program manager at AIR. In this role, Reynolds works with AIR leadership on the AIR Equity Initiative to implement strategic efforts that connect research, policy, and practice to advance AIR’s mission. She leads the Pipeline Partnership Program (P3-US) which seeks to build a pipeline of ...
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 ...
Orrin T. Murray is a principal researcher at AIR. His primary responsibilities include overseeing the research practice partnership for the Regional Educational Laboratory Midwest (REL Midwest). He is the principal investigator on a U.S. Department of Education EIR evaluation of Austin Independent School District’s implementation of culturally responsive and restorative practices, ...
Elizabeth Spier is a principal researcher at AIR. She has over 20 years of experience designing and managing large-scale, policy-relevant studies examining the effectiveness of programs, and interventions designed to improve developmental and educational outcomes for children. Her expertise includes child development, safe and supportive learning environments, child and family ...
Paula Dias is a qualitative senior researcher at AIR with over 10 years of research experience in the development sector. She has extensive experience in qualitative methods, including ethnography and participatory methods. At AIR, she leads and contributes to a variety of mixed-methods evaluations on the topics of social protection, ...
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 ...
Katie Rich is a senior researcher at AIR. She leads and supports a variety of projects related to mathematics and computer science education. She is currently serving as a coaching and technical assistance lead for the Engagement and Achievement through Computational Thinking (ENACT) partnership within the Regional Educational Laboratory Midwest, ...
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 ...
Linda Lin is a researcher at AIR with experience in designing and conducting education research and evaluation studies. Dr. Lin specializes in experimental and quasi-experimental study design and quantitative methodology, with a particular interest in casual inference methods, multilevel modeling and data mining. She also has extensive experience in developing ...