Jonathan Margolin is a principal researcher in the Human Services program at AIR. His primary responsibilities involve managing evaluations of K–12 education programs and systems related to K-16 STEM education, educational technology implementation, and civics. He has extensive experience with evaluating educational interventions in STEM programs, including educational simulations, apps ...
Jill Walston is a principal researcher at the American Institutes for Research. Dr. Walston leads quantitative research and technical assistance projects mainly for the Midwest and the Southwest Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) programs, sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES). Dr. Walston serves as the project director for AIR’s ...
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.
Uttara Balakrishnan is a senior research economist at AIR with over ten years of experience designing, implementing, and reviewing complex and challenging mixed methods impact and performance evaluations and formative research in developing countries using quantitative and qualitative methods. She specializes in quantitative methods and has extensive expertise in econometric ...
Deborah Holtzman, an AIR principal researcher, specializes in the statistical analysis of quantitative data, particularly achievement data and survey data. She recently concluded the evaluation of a College Board school-intervention program for which she analyzed achievement and other outcome data for schools in three states using a comparative interrupted time ...
Andrew Wayne is a managing researcher at AIR. He develops, supervises, and leads work designed to improve K-12 education.
Dr. Wayne’s main line of work focuses on K-12 teacher professional learning. Over the last two decades, he conducted groundbreaking studies of professional learning programs and their impact on teacher and student ...
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 ...
Amy Young is a principal TA consultant at AIR with over 20 years of experience in public policy, program management, and technical assistance in the workforce development field. She is an accomplished director with extensive experience designing and leading high-profile projects, complex technical assistance initiatives, and large-scale grants and contracts. ...
Orrin T. Murray is a principal researcher at AIR. His primary responsibilities include overseeing the research practice partnership for the Regional Educational Laboratory Midwest (REL Midwest). He is the principal investigator on a U.S. Department of Education EIR evaluation of Austin Independent School District’s implementation of culturally responsive and restorative practices, ...
Robert Allport is a Chief of Party in the Food Security and Third-Party Monitoring program at AIR. His primary responsibilities include provision of evidence-based guidance to international donors and their humanitarian partners acting in complex emergency environments. Evidence is generated through the design of research protocols, the management of data ...