Cheng Shuang (Grace) Ji is a senior researcher in the Research and Evaluation program at AIR. Her primary responsibilities include managing the state mapping project and conducting research on social-emotional learning, college and career preparedness, testing behaviors, and improving measures of social economic status. Ji also provides statistical support and reviews of technical documents and web publications for NAEP, ...
Whitney Cade is a senior researcher at AIR. She currently supports multiple projects, including two Institute for Education Science grants and the Regional Education Laboratories Southwest. Her recent work focuses on understanding the impacts of 8th grade algebra on school trajectories and college readiness, evaluating UTeach teacher characteristics and program ...
Robert Nathenson is a senior researcher at AIR. He has over 10 years of experience in the execution of rigorous econometric and behavioral science techniques to applied policy questions in the postsecondary education, pre-k-12 education, and health fields. Dr. Nathenson regularly conducts research using both experimental and quasi-experimental designs. His ...
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.
Julie Jacobson Vann has more than 40 years of experience in health services that spans the delivery of public health and patient care services, health services and Medicaid managed care administration, research and evaluation, and academic teaching. More than 20 of those years have involved planning, managing and directing health ...
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 ...
David Blumenthal is a researcher at AIR. His work focuses on helping schools and districts set up systems to support students in meeting educational milestones such as on-time graduation and college and career readiness.
Blumenthal’s work includes policy analysis, program evaluation, and technical assistance for state education agencies, school districts, and ...
Elisabeth Davis is a principal researcher at AIR. Dr. Davis’s expertise includes college access and readiness, experimental and quasi-experimental design, and quantitative statistical methodology. She has collaborated on several projects in a variety of roles since joining AIR. Her most recent roles have been as principal investigator of a study ...
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 ...