Roddy Theobald is a managing researcher in the Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER) at AIR. His primary responsibilities include overseeing eight externally-funded research projects related to the teacher labor market and its implications for student outcomes. He has extensive experience using large administrative datasets to ...
Katie Rich is a senior researcher at AIR. She leads and supports a variety of projects related to mathematics and computer science education. She is currently serving as a coaching and technical assistance lead for the Engagement and Achievement through Computational Thinking (ENACT) partnership within the Regional Educational Laboratory Midwest, ...
Melissa Yisak is a senior researcher at AIR. She specializes in mixed-methods program evaluations and research studies and her main areas of interest include teacher preparation, youth development, and restorative justice. Her responsibilities include conducting interviews and focus groups and analyzing the data, conducting descriptive and inferential analyses with extant ...
Lee Thompson is a principal TA consultant at AIR. Her primary responsibilities include leading health care research, technical assistance, and evaluation projects. Drawing on her 20 years of experience in the fields of health and aging, she has expertise conducting outreach to and engaging a variety of stakeholders, including healthcare ...
Kellie Anderson (she/her) is a senior technical project manager at AIR. Her roles include project director, instructional designer, quality assurance reviewer, subject matter expert, and communications specialist for adult distance learning projects. Anderson also serves on the leadership teams for the Learning Technologies Team and the Communicators Community of Practice ...
Jordan Rickles is a principal researcher at AIR. Dr. Rickles has fifteen years of education research and evaluation experience, including work within the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) and the University of California National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST). He specializes in research design ...
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.
As a principal researcher at AIR, Emily Elstad leads teams in conducting health behavior and health services research projects. Dr. Elstad is an expert in patient-provider communication and qualitative and mixed methods. Her research has focused on understanding and optimizing patient-provider decision making, including health information seeking and receipt of ...
Timothy Hill is a senior vice president and leads AIR's Health Division. Hill previously served as vice president for client engagement (2019-2024), first at IMPAQ international and then at AIR when the institute acquired IMPAQ in 2020. He is a highly experienced federal health policy expert, who has led diverse ...
Mary Kay Dugan is a managing technical assistant consultant at AIR. She is passionate about identifying evidence-based promising practices and translating them into policies and effective programs focused on underserved populations including disadvantaged youth and young adults. Dugan has over 30 years of experience helping federal, state, and local governments ...