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 ...
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 ...
Cecilia Xuning Zhang is an interdisciplinary researcher with years of mixed-methods research experience and a wide breadth of content knowledge in the areas of Early Childhood Education (ECE) and Technology-Based Learning Supports. She has rich technical expertise in collecting and analyzing extant data to inform enrollment trends and population estimates, leading user ...
Danielle Carnahan, a senior technical assistance consultant at AIR, has more than 20 years of experience in education, the past 12 years of which have been spent developing expertise in literacy and curriculum initiatives. During this time she has worked with numerous states, districts and schools to help align and ...
Dominique Bradley is a senior researcher at AIR and deputy director for the Long Beach Network for School Improvement. She serves as the qualitative research lead for evaluations of the Community Schools Initiative, Full Service Community Schools and Sustainable Community Schools for Chicago Public Schools and the research lead and ...
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.
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 ...
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 ...
Robert Schwarzhaupt is a quantitative researcher at AIR, where he seeks to broaden participation in CS and STEM by examining PK-12 teacher preparation, instruction, and professional development, particularly for underserved and underrepresented groups.