Megan Sambolt

Managing Director

Megan Sambolt specializes in cross-sector collaboration to improve youth outcomes, including well-being, attendance, and chronic absenteeism. Sambolt serves as the project director for the Wallace Foundation’s Advancing Opportunities for Adolescents project designed to help cross-sector partnerships expand youth engagement in expanded learning and infuse youth development into wraparound supports. 

Sambolt also served as the project director for the Bridges Collaborative Continuous Improvement project, an implementation study of a consortium of public school districts, charter management organizations, and public health organizations focused on ensuring access to opportunity for all youth. Sambolt also served as the AIR project director for the Student Attendance and Engagement Center and a Senior Advisor for the Attendance Policy Partnership, focusing on supporting states and districts as they test attendance policies and supports in their local contexts. 

Previously, Sambolt oversaw AIR’s Good Behavior Game work, served as the Knowledge Generation team leader for the College and Career Readiness and Success Center and the Products and Tools team leader for the National High School Center, focusing on both college and career readiness and high school improvement. Sambolt also has experience with topics including research-practitioner partnerships focused on implementing plan-do-study act cycles on attendance policies and supports, competency-based education, and online learning.

Prior to working at AIR, Sambolt worked as a middle school teacher in New York, New York.

Related Work
Community volunteers working together
2026-03-01

PlaceWise: Turning Local Data Into Community Action

PlaceWise is AIR's community data and learning initiative that helps local communities and national place-based organizations use data to support decision-making, continuous improvement, and long-term systems change.
Smiling kids sitting in a row at school
2022-12-21

Bridges Collaborative Continuous Improvement Study

The Bridges Collaborative provides a unique opportunity to explore desegregation and integration efforts in diverse contexts and address some of the gaps in the research. Through this work, we sought both to address gaps in the research and to serve the needs and interests of Bridges Collaborative members. ...
Image of child giving teacher on screen a thumbs up
2020-12-08

How Positive Reinforcement Can Keep Students Engaged in a Virtual Setting

08 Dec 2020
Educators have faced numerous obstacles to meaningfully engaging students during the global coronavirus pandemic. Initially, these were practical, including providing students with access to technology and safe spaces to learn. AIR Senior Researcher Megan Sambolt explains how research suggests multiple types of positive reinforcers can contribute to improved student behavior ...
2012-10-25

Does "Won't Back Down" Square with Research?

25 Oct 2012
AIR educational experts provide quick reviews of a popular new film exploring parental responses to a failing school.
Megan Sambolt
Expertise
Education
College and Career Readiness

M.S., Education
Bank Street College

M.P.P.
George Washington University.

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