About the COVID-19 and Equity in Education Team
Michael Garet, Co-Principal Investigator
Dr. Michael S. Garet is a vice president and Institute Fellow at AIR and a co-principal investigator for the CEE Initiative. His areas of specialization include teacher development and methodological issues in evaluating the impacts of educational interventions. He is currently co-leading studies of multi-tiered systems of support in reading and the implementation of the Striving Readers Comprehensive Literacy program for the Institute of Education Sciences, as well as an evaluation of continuous improvement as part of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Networks for School Improvement initiative.
Susan Therriault, Co-Principal Investigator
Dr. Susan Bowles Therriault is a managing director at AIR and co-principal investigator for the CEE Initiative. Her areas of specialization include conducting research to inform the development of accessible technical assistance training and tools related to the use of data by states, districts, and schools to improve educational outcomes for students. Presently, she leads a body of work in Massachusetts to conduct focused evaluations of struggling schools and districts designed to inform continuous improvement at the state, district, and school levels. She is the co-principal investigator of a mid-phase Education Innovation Research grant focused on building evidence for the use of the early warning intervention monitoring system to increase the number of students who graduate from high school. She also serves as an advisor on the federally funded National Students Attendance, Engagement and Success Center, and is a former director of the U.S. Department of Education–funded College and Career Readiness and Success Center.
Cong Ye, Longitudinal Database Lead and Developer
Dr. Cong Ye is a senior researcher in the Education Statistics Program at AIR and leads the development of the longitudinal database for the CEE Initiative. His areas of specialization include survey methodologies, sampling and weighting, and modeling with complex survey data. He has experience in designing survey and research platforms and leading the development of AIR data analytics tools—including topic modeling, sentiment analysis, web scraping, video processing, and text labeling—that help projects in reducing labor and cost as well as improving the data sources and data quality.
Caitlin Deal, Place-Based Asset Mapping Lead and Data Scientist
Caitlin Deal is a data scientist in Technology Solutions at AIR and supports the development of the longitudinal database and community asset maps for the CEE Initiative. Her areas of specialization include geospatial information sciences (GIS) and survey methodology and is currently working on GIS analytics for the CEE project, where she combines datasets from multiple sources, such as the Census Bureau and state education departments. She has extensive experience with spatial modeling and analyzing of survey and administrative data to create online interactive maps, story maps, and apps.
Trent Sharp, Co-Lead, CEE Researcher-Practitioner Partnership Network and Database Developer
Dr. Trent Sharp is a senior consultant at AIR and co-leads the CEE research–practice partnership network. His area of focus include participatory and place-based research, digital equity, human centered design and collective impact. He is currently leading a coalition of local foundations through a mixed methods adult and family literacy needs assessment in 22 counties across Texas and New Mexico, collaborating with 10 schools in Austin, Texas, to sustain their collective impact efforts, and supporting multiple state agencies as they integrate spatial analytics into their state-level decision-making.
Tammie Causey-Konaté, Co-Lead, CEE Researcher-Practitioner Partnership Network
Dr. Tammie M. Causey-Konaté is an AIR senior technical assistance consultant and research–practice partnership co-lead on the CEE project. Her areas of specialization include diversity and equity, cultural and linguistic competence, workforce diversification, cross-education system partnerships, and the postsecondary development of school leaders for urban and rural education contexts. A former educator, Dr. Causey-Konaté directs the Wallace CALL for Equity Centered Leadership project at AIR and serves as equity advisor in the Center on Great Teachers and Leaders and on several projects, including the BMGF Evaluation of the Networks for School Improvement project and the Improving Equity in Career and Technical Education Ohio project.
Sushmita Subedi, Project Manager and CEE Community of Researchers Lead
Dr. Sushmita Subedi is a senior researcher at AIR and the project manager for the CEE Initiative. She also leads the development and operation of the CEE Initiative’s community of researchers. Her areas of specialization include research on education policy implementation and the evaluation of school improvement, educator development, and social-emotional learning programs. Currently, Dr. Subedi leads a portfolio of quantitative and qualitative research and evaluation projects at AIR, engaging clients, organizations, and policy makers in research-informed and equity-focused discussions on the path to improving outcomes for students and developing teacher leaders.
Crystal London, Cross-Task Support, CEE Community of Researchers
Dr. Crystal London is an equity researcher at AIR and provides cross-task support for the CEE Initiative. Her areas of specialization include content and technical expertise extends to multicultural issues of education, equity in education, curriculum and instruction, educational leadership, and hybrid and remote learning contexts. Dr. London’s current responsibilities include monitoring and providing support for the implementation of analysis plans. She is also working on projects aimed at improving access to advanced courses for historically marginalized groups and supporting efforts around desegregation and integration of schools. She has methodological expertise in quantitative and mixed methods research designs, protocol development, data management, statistical and qualitative analysis and interpretation, and report writing.
Carol Felicio, Communications Associate
Carol Felicio is a communications associate at AIR and provides communication and event planning support for the CEE Initiative. She assists the project by coordinating the efforts of the communications team, developing virtual events, and designing infographics. In addition to the CEE Initiative, she serves as an engagement liaison across multiple client-facing projects where she curates research for diverse audiences through blog posts, social media, handouts, presentations, and bilingual videos.
Kyle Argueta, Communications Associate
Kyle Argueta is a communications associate at AIR and provides communication and multimedia support for the CEE Initiative. His areas of focus for the project include strategic digital communications, writing support, web development, and project coordination. In addition to the CEE Initiative, he serves as a communication lead across multiple client-facing projects where he provides creative solutions to strategically disseminate products, publications, and resources via social media, video/audio deliverables, and animated graphics and presentations.
Morgan Thomas, Research Assistant
Morgan Thomas is a research assistant for the CEE project and serves as project manager of the research–practice partnerships for CEE. Her areas of focus include qualitative and quantitative research analysis, writing support, project coordination, GIS map design, policy development, and conducting interviews. Additionally, she works on whole child policies, syllabi review, GIS mapping, workforce alignment, school facilities, 21st century student needs, and Early Warning Intervention Systems.
Ashley Sunde, Research Assistant
Ashley Sunde is a research assistant at AIR who assists the CEE Initiative with data validation efforts. Her area of focus is on education programs at the secondary level. She currently supports the data management, preparation, and analysis efforts of a randomized-control trial study evaluating the impacts of a high-school intervention on student achievement.
Mia Mamone, Research Assistant
Mia Mamone is a communications assistant at AIR and is working on the communications team for the CEE Initiative. Her areas of focus include content creation, social media development, and online events. In addition to the CEE Initiative, she works on multiple education projects, including REL Midwest, REL Southwest, and the PROGRESS Center.
Katie Korwan, Research Assistant
Katie Korwan is a research assistant at AIR who updates and maintains the CEE Literature Review tracker for the CEE initiative, which enhances the available body of relevant research on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on K-12 education. Within AIR, Katie contributes to a variety of different equity-centered projects relating to access to high-quality instruction, early college programming, and the Every Student Succeeds Act.