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 ...
Christopher A. Cody is a principal researcher at AIR, where he works on the Education Statistics Services Institute Network project as director of the postsecondary administrative data division task. As director of the postsecondary administrative data division project, Dr. Cody also serves as a survey director for the Integrated Postsecondary ...
Victoria (Tori) Cirks is a managing director at AIR. Cirks has more than fifteen years of experience managing research and technical assistance projects and teams and providing technical assistance at the state, district, and school level to improve student outcomes with a specific focus on continuous improvement college and career ...
Pooja Reddy Nakamura is a principal researcher in the International Development Division at AIR. As lead of the International Foundational Learning Practice Hub, she oversees a portfolio of research, evaluations, assessments, and implementation projects on foundational learning in over 20 countries, especially in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. The focus of ...
Lynn Holdheide is a managing technical assistance consultant for AIR with more than ten years of experience in providing responsive technical assistance of the highest quality to state education agencies (SEAs) and regional comprehensive centers. Her comprehensive knowledge of and expertise in special education-including response to intervention, inclusive services, evaluating ...
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.
Nicholas Sorensen is a principal researcher at AIR. His research is primarily focused on dropout prevention and helping struggling students succeed across the transition to high school. His work emphasizes the role of social psychological interventions, strategies to support success in algebra and mathematics, and use of early warning systems ...
Toni M. Smith is a managing researcher at AIR where she directs research and development projects focused on mathematics instruction and teacher professional learning.
Dr. Smith currently directs the development and experimental testing of a virtual coaching program designed to improve the alignment of teachers’ instruction to state standards funded by ...
Kwelin Waller is senior program manager with the AIR Equity Initiative. Waller works to combine research and technical assistance with real-world applications, leading the Equity Initiative's work in the interconnected areas of workforce development, community health and well-being. Additionally, she leads the AIR Scholars and Leaders Award grant competition, an initiative that ...
Lynn Mellor is a principal researcher at AIR, where she provides overall leadership for all aspects of the analytic technical support and research and evaluation studies for the REL Southwest. Dr. Mellor’s responsibilities include managing the coordination and implementation of analytic technical support with research alliance members. In addition, she conducts ...