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.
AIR recently reviewed the approved Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) flexibility plans to identify policies and practices relevant to English learners, provided considerations based on our knowledge of research for the implementation of proposed reforms and described exemplary state and district practices. ...
Whitney Cade is a senior researcher at AIR. She currently supports multiple projects, including two Institute for Education Science grants and the Regional Education Laboratories Southwest. Her recent work focuses on understanding the impacts of 8th grade algebra on school trajectories and college readiness, evaluating UTeach teacher characteristics and program ...
Ana Gonzalez is a project specialist for the International Development Division at AIR. She brings over 10 years of experience with project management, with a specialization in basic education and youth, focused on leading capacity strengthening initiatives in collaboration with international entities around stakeholder engagement and research. Her work is ...
Trisha H. Borman is a managing director at AIR. Dr. Borman's expertise is in education research methodology, and she is deeply knowledgeable and practiced in a range of analytic approaches. Currently, she is principal investigator of two multisite randomized controlled trials funded by the U.S. Department of Education. Dr. Borman ...
Working with states and districts, we apply evidence-based strategies to designing and developing policies and practices in order to create education systems centered on high-quality standards and assessments for all students. AIR’s Standards and Assessment ecosystem provides a cohesive and comprehensive structure to guide the development of standards-based systems. ...
Eric Larsen is a principal economist at AIR, specializing in program and policy evaluation, experimental and quasi-experimental research designs, and teacher and leader effectiveness. He is currently the principal investigator for three evaluations of interventions designed to improve the effectiveness of K–12 school leaders. He is also the exploratory study ...
Natalya Gnedko-Berry is a principal researcher at AIR. Since the beginning of her research career in 2006, she has led or contributed to a range of evaluations and experimental and quasi-experimental studies with the primary focus on education. Equally skilled in quantitative and qualitative methodologies, Dr. Gnedko-Berry contributes to the ...
Kristina L. Zeiser is a principal researcher at AIR. Her primary research interests include the transition from high school to postsecondary education, academic outcomes among English language learners (ELL), and social disparities in educational outcomes and experiences. Throughout her graduate career at the Pennsylvania State University, Dr. Zeiser received training ...
Michaela Gulemetova is a senior economist at AIR who specializes in methods for program evaluation in education research. With over 15 years of professional experience, Dr. Gulemetova possesses a wealth of expertise and deep knowledge of education evaluation studies. She has often served as principal investigator and senior technical lead ...