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.
Robyn Madison is a senior technical assistance consultant in the Education Systems and Policy program at AIR. Her primary responsibilities include supporting many AIR project teams with advancing diversity-equity-inclusion and cultural and linguistic competence through their work with each other as colleagues and with our external constituency. Dr. Madison works ...
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 ...
Cheryl Harris is a senior technical assistance consultant at AIR. Her current work involves providing technical assistance for the Texas (TXCC) and Southeast (SECC) Comprehensive Centers, addressing state and local capacity building in school improvement and key content areas. This work includes assisting states and their statewide systems of support ...
Kerstin Carlson Le Floch is a managing researcher at AIR, specializing in school improvement, state accountability policies, and Title I implementation. She has conducted studies of Title I policy and accountability systems throughout her two decades at AIR. At present, Dr. Le Floch is the principal investigator on two studies ...
Niu Gao is a principal researcher at AIR specializing in K-12 education policy. Her current work focuses on COVID-19 and education, and she is leading multiple projects to examine the impact of the pandemic on K-12 education and identify effective strategies to help students recover—and recover equitably. Her other areas ...
Orrin T. Murray is a principal researcher at AIR. His primary responsibilities include overseeing the research practice partnership for the Regional Educational Laboratory Midwest (REL Midwest). He is the principal investigator on a U.S. Department of Education EIR evaluation of Austin Independent School District’s implementation of culturally responsive and restorative practices, ...
Meghan Wills is a senior TA consultant in the Workforce program at AIR. Her primary responsibilities include providing strategic support and technical assistance to strengthen and modernize the Registered Apprenticeship system and expanding the use of Registered Apprenticeship to train and prepare the educator workforce.Wills has more than 12 years ...
Dia Jackson is a senior researcher at AIR who provides technical assistance, research, and professional development projects to states and school districts in the areas of response to intervention (RTI)/multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) and special education best practices. Currently, Dr. Jackson is the project director for the Arkansas RTI ...
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 ...