Melissa Yisak is a senior researcher at AIR. She specializes in mixed-methods program evaluations and research studies and her main areas of interest include teacher preparation, youth development, and restorative justice. Her responsibilities include conducting interviews and focus groups and analyzing the data, conducting descriptive and inferential analyses with extant ...
Kathleen L. Pfannenstiel is a senior researcher at AIR and provides technical assistance and professional development to states and school districts with an emphasis on improving results for students with disabilities. Dr. Pfannenstiel is the principle investigator for an Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) model demonstration grant. She works ...
Lynn Fuchs is an Institute Fellow at AIR and a research professor at Vanderbilt University. Dr. Fuchs conducts programmatic research on assessment methods for enhancing instructional planning, on instructional methods for improving mathematics and reading outcomes for students with learning disabilities, and on the cognitive and linguistic student characteristics associated ...
Amy Dalsimer is a principal technical assistance consultant with the Adult Education and Literacy Practice Group at AIR. Her work is focused on improving services and instruction to adult learners by conducting research and providing professional development to states and local providers, strengthening accountability and use of data for program ...
Katie Dahlke is a principal researcher at AIR with 15 years of experience as a program evaluator and researcher, with a focus studying early care and education (ECE) settings and evaluating PreK-12 education programs. Her technical areas of expertise includes quasi-experimental, experimental, and mixed methods research and evaluation design as ...
Robyn Madison is a senior technical assistance consultant in the Education Systems and Policy program at AIR. Her primary responsibilities include supporting many AIR project teams with advancing diversity-equity-inclusion and cultural and linguistic competence through their work with each other as colleagues and with our external constituency. Dr. Madison works ...
Danielle Carnahan, a senior technical assistance consultant at AIR, has more than 20 years of experience in education, the past 12 years of which have been spent developing expertise in literacy and curriculum initiatives. During this time she has worked with numerous states, districts and schools to help align and ...
Megan Gildin (she/her) serves as a senior technical assistance consultant at AIR. She is a creative and skilled facilitator with fifteen years of experience in education and human development, working at the intersection of group dynamics, social emotional learning, healing-centered engagement, and equity.Gildin is a dynamic collaborator and content creator ...
Vanessa Hoffman is a researcher in the International Development Division at AIR. She has over 8 years of experience leading qualitative approaches for evaluations and assessments in developing country settings. Her current work evaluates energy efficiency and renewable energy generation activities in Kosovo, improving children’s educational outcomes in Burkina Faso, ...
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.