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 ...
Veronica Tate is a managing director at AIR and serves as a senior leader on the management team that shapes the technical assistance delivery and supports effective collaboration across the comprehensive centers operated by AIR. She provides leadership, project management, and quality assurance supervision to ensure the effectiveness of services, ...
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.
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 ...
Elizabeth Zachry Rutschow is a managing researcher at AIR. She is an expert in postsecondary and adult education reform and has led many large-scale, mixed-methods evaluations of community college and adult education reforms. She is dedicated to using qualitative and quantitative research to improve equity and the prosperity and well-being of ...
Rosa Castro-Zarzur is an economist in AIR’s International Development Division, with extensive training in experimental and quasi-experimental impact evaluations and more than seven years of experience conducting evaluations of social and agricultural programs in developing countries.
Her current work includes evaluating programs aimed at improving child wellbeing and reducing household ...
Thomas de Hoop directs a research and evaluation portfolio with a focus on the impact, scalability, and cost-effectiveness of self-help groups, savings groups, and education innovations in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
Samuel E DeWitt is a senior researcher at AIR. Previously, he spent 7 years as a faculty member at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte’s (UNC Charlotte) Department of Criminal Justice & Criminology. During his time at UNC Charlotte, Dr. DeWitt served as a co-PI for a National Institute ...
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 ...
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 ...