AIR - Key Persons


Aaron Butler

Job Titles:
  • Consultant
  • Principal
Aaron Butler, a principal technical assistance consultant at AIR, has nearly 20 years of experience supporting school improvement in public education through his work in rural, suburban, and urban districts as well as supporting multiple state departments of education. Dr. Butler serves as the deputy director and individualized technical assistance ...

Abby Bandurraga

Job Titles:
  • Senior TA Consultant

Alka Arora

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Board of Directors
  • Senior Researcher

Amanda Ahlstrand - Managing Director

Job Titles:
  • Managing Director

Amy Beller

Job Titles:
  • Senior TA Consultant

Andrea Amodeo

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Board of Directors
  • Principal Researcher

Andrew Liakopoulos

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Board of Directors

Angela Johnson

Job Titles:
  • Senior Researcher

Ann-Marie Akiwumi

Job Titles:
  • Principal Data Scientist

Anne Tillema Seguin

Job Titles:
  • Consultant in the Workforce Program Area
Anne Tillema Seguin is a senior technical assistance consultant in the Workforce Program Area at AIR. Her primary responsibilities include providing leadership for a remote, cross-functional team of 50 to implement complex solutions while managing a national project. Seguin independently establishes goals, objectives, strategies, and budget requirements for successful completion ...

Anthony Adkisson

Job Titles:
  • Principal TA Consultant

Ben Backes

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Board of Directors
  • Principal Economist

Beth Ratway

Job Titles:
  • Principal Technical Assistance Consultant
Beth Ratway is a principal technical assistance consultant in state services at AIR. She works with Great Lakes and Midwest Comprehensive Centers to assist state education agencies and intermediate school districts with implementation of the Common Core State Standards and developing innovative 21st century systems that improve academic achievement for ...

Bharati B. Belwalkar

Job Titles:
  • Industrial / Organizational Researcher

Blanchie Kelley


Brenda Arellano

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Board of Directors
  • Senior Researcher

Bridina Lemmer

Bridina Lemmer is a TA Consultant at AIR with more than 15 years of experience in science and STEM education, project-based learning, and assessment. Her primary responsibilities include partnering with clients at the school, district, and state levels to provide support in aligning curriculum, instruction, and assessment to standards specializing ...

Carolyn Corea

Job Titles:
  • Senior Researcher

Catherine Baker

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Board of Directors

Catherine E. Livingston

Job Titles:
  • Chief Legal Officer, Secretary to the Board, and Ethics Officer

Catherine Jacques

Job Titles:
  • Senior Researcher
Catherine Jacques conducts research and design professional learning supports for teachers that help advance their careers, including alternate endorsements or licensure in areas like CS. She also works on projects focused on personalized learning and use of technology in instruction.

Coretta Mallery Lankford

Job Titles:
  • Principal Researcher
  • Deputy Director for the Health Learning Translation
As a principal researcher at AIR, Coretta Mallery Lankford is the deputy director for the Health Learning Translation and Quality Measurement group responsible for leading the design and implementation of work to develop and implement quality measures and has specific expertise in developing measures for people with disabilities. Dr. Lankford's ...

Dan Frederking

Job Titles:
  • Senior TA Consultant
Dr. Frederking is interested in assisting K-12 education systems increase CS opportunities for students.

Danielle Battle

Job Titles:
  • Principal Researcher

Danielle Ferguson

Job Titles:
  • Researcher With Expertise in K - 12
Danielle Ferguson is a senior qualitative researcher with expertise in K-12 science, and large-scale assessment development, scoring, and reporting. Her primary responsibilities include serving as the lead science content expert for item development for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). She conducts science content reviews and provides technical support for the ...

David A. Goslin

Job Titles:
  • Becomes President and CEO

David Bamat

Job Titles:
  • Senior Researcher

David Bateman

Job Titles:
  • Principal Researcher

David Myers

Job Titles:
  • Becomes AIR 's Sixth President and CEO
  • Board of Directors

David Seidenfeld

Job Titles:
  • Senior Vice President, International Development Division

Diana Oh

Job Titles:
  • Researcher
Diana Oh believes family and community supports play an important role in computer science education.

Dr. Louis C. Danielson

Job Titles:
  • Managing Director and Special Education Expert
Dr. Louis C. Danielson, a managing director and special education expert at the American Institutes for Research (AIR), received the Council for Exceptional Children's prestigious J.E. Wallace Wallin Lifetime Achievement Award on April 11, 2012 during the organization's annual convention in Denver, CO. ...

Drew Atchison

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Board of Directors
  • Senior Researcher

Edward Hamburg

Job Titles:
  • Board of Directors

Elizabeth Adams

Job Titles:
  • Senior Researcher

George Kaiser

Job Titles:
  • Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

Gina Wells

Job Titles:
  • Consultant in the Workforce Program
Gina Wells is a senior TA consultant in the Workforce program at AIR. Her primary responsibilities include serving as a senior advisor, subject matter expert, and director on projects related to the expansion of the U.S. Registered Apprenticeship system. She also supports states in their efforts to increase equity in ...

Jack Jordan

Job Titles:
  • Principal Researcher in the Health Division
Jack Jordan is a principal researcher in the Health Division at AIR. His primary responsibilities include leading the analytics support for the Convergence HQIC contract including designing the process to deliver data to stakeholders in dashboards, perform analysis to find leverage points, and use that data to advise Convergence HQIC ...

Jennifer Anthony

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Board of Directors
  • Senior Researcher

Jessica Barnier

Job Titles:
  • Project Specialist

Jessica Heppen - CEO, President

Job Titles:
  • CEO
  • Member of the Board of Directors
  • President

Jizhi Zhang

Jizhi Zhang is an educational psychologist, and a principal research scientist at AIR. Dr. Zhang is currently working on a National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) research study on achievement gaps and previously she led a content research study to compare the 2011 Grade 8 NAEP and the Trends in ...

Joel Knudson

Job Titles:
  • Principal Researcher
Dr. Knudson's work focuses on the district role in school improvement. He is particularly interested in system-level strategies to understand and support access to CS at scale, especially for students who have not historically been represented in CS courses and careers.

Joey Wilson

Job Titles:
  • Engineer
  • Director, CS@AIR
Dr. Wilson is an engineer, STEM educator, and computer science (CS) education advocate. He believes CS is both an incredible vehicle for creative exploration and a fundamental literacy in the 21st century, and that all students should have access to high quality CS education experiences.

Julie Kochanek

Job Titles:
  • Senior Vice President, Human Services

Karen Francis

Job Titles:
  • Vice President and Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer

Katherine J. Allen

Job Titles:
  • Senior Project Specialist

Kathy McKinless

Job Titles:
  • Board of Directors

Katie Rich

Job Titles:
  • Senior Researcher
Dr. Rich conducts research and supports computer science teachers across K-12, with a focus on the K-8 grade band. She is particularly interested in elementary CS and the integration of CS with mathematics.

Kim Pattillo Brownson

Job Titles:
  • Board of Directors
Kim Pattillo Brownson joined the Los Angeles office of the Ballmer Group as the organization's first Director of Strategy and Policy. Pattillo Brownson guides Ballmer Group's county and state policy and advocacy strategy. In this new role, Pattillo Brownson will launch the organization's early childhood grantmaking in California, and help ...

Lauren Artzi

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Board of Directors
  • Senior Researcher

Lauren Focarazzo

Job Titles:
  • Vice President, Business Development

Lawrence D. Bobo - Chairman

Job Titles:
  • Chairman of the Board of Directors

Lesley Sepanloo

Job Titles:
  • Senior Vice President, Human Resources

Lynn Bajorek

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Board of Directors
  • Principal TA Consultant

Makini Nyanteh - CCO, SVP

Job Titles:
  • Chief Communications Officer
  • Senior Vice President

Maliha Ali

Job Titles:
  • Senior Researcher

Manuel Pastor

Job Titles:
  • Board of Directors

Marijo Ahlgrimm - CFO, EVP

Job Titles:
  • Chief Financial Officer
  • Executive Vice President

Marion Baldwin

Job Titles:
  • Senior TA Consultant

Marissa Spang

Job Titles:
  • Indigenous Education Researcher
Marissa Spang's interests involve designing computer science teaching and learning in ways that align with and grow non-dominant student STEM identities and knowledges, e.g., Indigenous sciences and languages.

Marlene Darwin

Job Titles:
  • Senior Researcher
Marlene Darwin, a senior researcher at the American Institutes for Research (AIR), will discuss ways educators can use research during a presentation on May 18 in Washington, D.C. Darwin will present on behalf of the Doing What Works (DWW) initiative to the Research and Analysis Committee of the Committee for ... Marlene Darwin is a senior researcher who has been with AIR since 2003. Prior to joining AIR, Dr. Darwin spent 15 years as a reading specialist in middle and high schools in Virginia and Georgia. She spent seven years on the management team for the Reading First Monitoring Project, where ...

Marshal Conley

Job Titles:
  • Consultant
  • Principal
Marshal Conley is a principal technical assistance consultant at AIR. His current work focuses on policy, practice, and knowledge utilization related to digital and blended learning and integration of learning technologies with instructional practice for learners of all ages. Conley is also an expert in the design, implementation, and facilitation ...

Mary Burns

Job Titles:
  • Researcher
Dr. Burns' computer science interests are collaborating with districts and research partners to expand CS into lower grades and more content areas.

Mayra E. Alvarez

Job Titles:
  • Board of Directors

Megan Austin

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Board of Directors
  • Principal Researcher

Michael A. Stoll

Job Titles:
  • Board of Directors

Nancy Cantor

Job Titles:
  • Board of Directors

Paul A. Schwarz

Job Titles:
  • Becomes President and CEO

Paul Bailey

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Board of Directors
  • Senior Economist

Raines Wallace

Job Titles:
  • Becomes President and CEO

Rashawn Ray

Job Titles:
  • Becomes Director of AIR Equity Initiative
  • Vice President and Executive Director of the AIR Equity Initiative
Rashawn Ray, a nationally recognized expert on racial and social inequity, becomes the AIR Equity Initiative's second leader on Feb. 1, 2023. Before joining AIR full time, Ray served as an AIR Institute Fellow and helped guide some of the Equity Initiative's early work. Ray was a professor of sociology at the University of Maryland, College Park for more than 10 years and served as executive director of the Lab for Applied Social Science Research, which focuses on critical issues of public concern, including policing and community relations. He was also a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and served on the national advisory committee for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Health Policy Research Scholars Program.

Rob Allport

Job Titles:
  • Chief of Party

Robert Boruch

Job Titles:
  • Board of Directors

Robert Schwarzhaupt

Job Titles:
  • Researcher
Schwarzhaupt's research interests include exploring how non-cognitive factors (e.g., efficacy) can influence the recruitment of CS teacher and the implementation of high-quality CS instruction for all students.

Ryan Torbey

Job Titles:
  • Researcher
Dr. Torbey believes that all children in grades K-12 should learn computer science. It empowers students to be creators instead of just consumers in our digital age.

Sadia Aslam-Khan

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Board of Directors
  • Principal Researcher

Samia Amin - Managing Director

Job Titles:
  • Managing Director
  • Member of the Board of Directors

Sarah Arden

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Board of Directors
  • Principal Researcher

Sarah Pedersen

Job Titles:
  • Senior Researcher in the Health Division
Sarah Pedersen is a senior researcher in the Health Division at AIR. Pedersen is an expert qualitative and mixed methodologist with experience managing, developing, and implementing programs and policies that contribute to maternal and women's health, health equity, health care quality and access, and person- and family-centered care. She uses ...

Sol H. Pelavin

Job Titles:
  • Becomes President and CEO
  • Board of Directors

Sophia Arredondo

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Board of Directors
  • TA Consultant

Stephanie Autumn

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Board of Directors
  • Senior TA Consultant

Stephanie M. Cronen

Job Titles:
  • Managing Researcher
Stephanie Cronen is a managing researcher at AIR. Dr. Cronen's work during the past 20+ years has focused largely on managing and conducting large-scale research studies, including survey research, experimental studies, and mixed-methods studies in adult education, professional development, and workforce preparation. ...

Susan Baseman - VP

Job Titles:
  • Vice President

Susan Lapham - VP

Job Titles:
  • Vice President
Susan Lapham is a vice president at AIR, contributing her expertise in program and talent management and quality assurance. Lapham also co-directs Project Talent, a nationally representative longitudinal study of 400,000 Americans who were first surveyed in 1960. She serves as principle investigator on several grants from the National Institute ...

Taletha Mae Derrington

Job Titles:
  • Senior Researcher
Taletha Mae Derrington is a senior researcher at AIR with over 25 years of experience in research and technical assistance (TA) projects focused on child and family health, development, and well-being. She is currently leading the Healthy Students Learn Better component of Promoting Equity Funding for Schools Facing Adverse Health Circumstances ...

Tessie Bailey

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Board of Directors
  • Principal TA Consultant

Timothy Hill - VP

Job Titles:
  • Vice President

Tracy Long

Job Titles:
  • Senior TA Consultant
Tracy Long is a senior TA consultant at AIR. Her primary responsibilities include providing technical assistance, expertise, and conducting trainings to support youth with disabilities for state and federal education agencies. Long is also responsible for the dissemination of knowledge and development of tools for state and federal agencies and ...

Uttara Balakrishnan

Job Titles:
  • Senior Research Economist

Wendy Brors

Job Titles:
  • Senior TA Consultant

Yifan Bai

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Board of Directors
  • Researcher