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 ...
Flora Harmon is a researcher at AIR. Her work focuses on advancing equitable based practices in early childhood and child welfare systems. Dr. Harmon has been working in the early childhood field since 2006 and has extensive research and practice expertise in the areas of equity, early childhood education, child ...
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.
Sophia Arredondo is a technical assistant specialist at AIR with experience in projects related to youth, family, and community development. She is responsible for providing specialized direct assistance and training to local educational agencies (LEAs) impacted by community violence to expand their capacity to implement community- and school-based strategies that ...
Jill Bowdon is a principal researcher at AIR. Dr. Bowdon has extensive training in statistical methods appropriate for making causal inferences, including experimental design and quasi-experimental methods. Altogether, she has 10 years of experience performing education research. Dr. Bowdon is a lead analyst for the Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Midwest ...
Joseph ("Joey") P. Wilson (he/him) is a managing director, where he leads the Institute's AI strategic planning and CS@AIR (Center for Evolving Computer Science Education). Dr. Wilson uses his engineering, teaching, and research experience for social good – especially at the intersections of PK-12 STEM and Computer Science (CS) education, ...
Arayle Freels is a senior program manager with the AIR Equity Initiative. She leads the Equity Initiative’s engagement and communications efforts to extend the reach of its programs and encourage dialogue, mutual learning, and action across stakeholder groups. Additionally, she provides strategic partner engagement and support for the AIR Pipeline ...
Tia Clinton is an education researcher who’s work spans equity, K-12 school and program improvement, student belonging, and evaluation. Dr. Clinton has extensive experience in school level and nonprofit level interventions to increase achievement outcomes for students of color both on the K-12 and higher education levels. Her professional career ...
Michelle Perry is a senior technical assistance consultant in the Youth, Family, and Community Development program area at AIR. She currently serves as deputy project director for the Corrections and Community Engagement Technical Assistance Center, funded by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance. In this role, she ...
Ryan Torbey is a researcher at AIR serving in the Educators and Instruction program area. He is an advocate for expanding computer science education in K-12 schools and believes that every student should learn the foundations of computer programming. At AIR, Dr. Torbey contributes to Wyoming Computer Science Micro-Credential Courses ...