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.
Yinmei Wan is a senior researcher at AIR. She has expertise in designing and implementing rigorous educational research and evaluation projects. Dr. Wan has played integral roles in various research projects around educator quality. She works on the Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Midwest team and leads the research effort for ...
Melissa Brown-Sims is a senior researcher at AIR. She is the project manager of two multi-year Transition-to-Teaching (TTT) evaluations with the Chicago Public Schools, a five-year state-wide evaluation of school leadership focused professional development program in Mississippi, and oversees AIR’s technical assistance support team of twenty-eight U.S. Department of Education ...
Lois Kimmel is a TA consultant at AIR. Kimmel’s expertise focuses on educator shortages and diversifying the teacher workforce, with a specific emphasis on teacher recruitment and preparation. Ms. Kimmel builds the capacity of state education agencies to strengthen their workforce through designing interactive professional development workshops, conducting mixed-methods research, ...
David Bamat is a senior researcher in the Education Statistics program at AIR. Dr. Bamat’s primary responsibilities include leading and supporting NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) research projects. His work focuses on studying and leveraging statistical methods to overcome small sample limitations in large-scale assessment (LSA) research. It also ...
Lakecia Whimper is Illinois CSI's senior performance management officer and a member of the center’s senior leadership team. In her role as the senior performance management officer she is charged with providing strategic leadership by leading the design and implementation of the performance management system for Illinois CSI. The performance management ...
Kristin Ruedel, managing researcher at AIR, currently serves as a task leader on the Center for Technology Innovation. Responsibilities include developing and writing of an Implementation Practice Guide including as well as providing support to field site liaisons and overall coordination of field test activities. She also collaborates with team ...
Amy Syvertsen is a principal researcher in AIR’s Youth, Family, and Community Development area. Dr. Syvertsen is an applied developmental scientist, and a content expert in positive youth development in childhood and adolescence with an emphasis on the developmental processes and contextual supports that undergird strong youth-adult relationships and civic ...
Jillian Reynolds is a senior program manager at AIR. In this role, Reynolds works with AIR leadership on the AIR Equity Initiative to implement strategic efforts that connect research, policy, and practice to advance AIR’s mission. She leads the Pipeline Partnership Program (P3-US) which seeks to build a pipeline of ...
Peter Rehder is a researcher at AIR. His work is focused on helping communities, practitioners, and policymakers build systems and programs that support healthy development and well-being for children and families, especially those who have traditionally been underserved or marginalized. He has extensive expertise in social and emotional development, developmental ...