American Institutes for Research® ■

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newsAIRMaking Research Relevant

®

ISSUE TWO | 2010 | N0. 32

Groundbreaking Effort

to Help Students and the

Syracuse, N.Y., Public

Schools ..................................1

AIR Finds Consumers’

Understanding of Evidence-

Based Health Care Lacking ....1

AIR and Learning Point

Associates Join Forces ...........1

AIR Helps Earthquake-

Devastated Haiti Rebuild

Its Schools .............................1

A Message From the

President and CEO .................2

Farmer Voice Radio: A New

Force to Combat Hunger in

Sub-Saharan Africa ................3

Study Finds Key Elements

in High-Achieving Schools:

Autonomy in Both Staffing

and Designing the

School Day.............................4

AIR Develops Body Mass

Index Calculator App

for the iPhone ........................5

Hamburg and Liakopoulos

Join AIR’s Board of

Directors ................................9

Staff in the News .................11

Cheryl Vince Whitman Joins

AIR .......................................12

All patients expect the very best care when visiting their

doctors. But according to a new AIR study, how patients

define “best care” is very different from how scientific

evidence would define the same term.

AIR’s study, which was conducted with funding from the

California HealthCare Foundation and in collaboration

with the National Business Group on Health, found

that there is a fundamental disconnect between the

central tenets of “evidence-based health care” and

what patients believe to be the best care. The findings

appeared in the July 2010 issue of Health Affairs.

“Consumers believe that ‘more’ care is ‘better’ care

and that new types of care and treatment are always

better — and it’s hard for them to accept evidence to the

contrary,” said Dr. Kristin Carman, who led the AIR study.

An unprecedented

effort is under way

in Syracuse, N.Y., to

transform the city’s

public school system

to improve student

achievement and offer

financial assistance

to those going to

college. To make this happen, an unusual public–private

partnership has been formed by Say Yes to Education,

Inc., Syracuse University, the school district and school

board, the teachers’ union, the mayor and the county

executive, business and community leaders, and AIR,

which has made a $7.5 million commitment to the

success of the effort.

AIR Finds Consumers’ Understanding of Evidence-Based Health Care Lacking

Groundbreaking Effort to Help Students and the Syracuse, N.Y., Public Schools

Continued on page 6 Continued on page 8

The devastating earthquake

in Haiti not only left a large

part of the country in shambles

but also destroyed or damaged

an estimated 4,000 schools,

leaving more than 500,000

children without places to learn.

AIR Helps Earthquake-Devastated Haiti Rebuild Its Schools

AIR and Learning Point Associates, two of the nation’s

leading not-for-profit education research firms, have

joined forces in a development that brings together

the strengths of both organizations and improves their

ability to provide cutting-edge research, evaluation

and technical assistance to improve people’s lives and

well-being.

AIR and Learning Point Associates Join Forces

Continued on page 10Continued on page 9

American Institutes for Research® ■

www.air.org

2

It is certainly an exciting time for the

American Institutes for Research.

In July, we formally announced

that AIR was joining with Learning

Point Associates on August 1, 2010.

Learning Point is a terrific organization. In addition to

running the Regional Education Laboratory Midwest,

Learning Point has become a national leader in education

research and consulting, particularly at the school and

district levels. The organization has distinguished itself in

areas such as educator effectiveness, district and school

improvement, literacy and after-school services.

Over the years, AIR and Learning Point have partnered

together on important projects that have shaped the

future of public education. Through these experiences, we

discovered a shared mission and a shared commitment to

the community, particularly those with the greatest need.

And we realized that together, we could have an even

stronger impact.

The move signals a new era in education research and

technical assistance. Together, we provide a seamless

continuum of research, direct professional services and

policy knowledge, from the classroom all the way to

federal and international levels. AIR has long stood as the

gold standard for education research and evaluation in

the United States. Learning Point’s work only strengthens

that reputation, providing us with additional “boots on

the ground” in those schools and districts that are

working to improve opportunities and learning outcomes

for all children.

This merger also comes as AIR prepares for the next

chapter in its impressive history. Earlier this summer, I

announced that I will retire at the end of the year, to be

succeeded by Dr. David Myers, AIR Senior Vice President

and Director of our Education, Human Development and

the Workforce (EHDW) Division.

When I merged Pelavin Associates Inc. with AIR in 1994,

the organization had 200 staffers and annual revenues

of $12 million. We closed 2009 with 1,500 employees

and annual revenues of $300 million. Such growth is

important. But what is more important is that AIR is now

synonymous with high-quality research, assessment and

technical assistance around the world.

Our successes truly have been the result of a team effort.

Together, AIR empowers communities and institutions

with solutions to the most critical education, health,

workforce and international development challenges.

Across the United States and around the world, our

efforts in EHDW, Education Assessment, Federal Statistics,

Health and International Development are making

a real difference. We are improving lives, improving

communities and improving our world.

I am excited by AIR’s future, in both the coming months

and years. AIR has long been an industry leader. I am

confident that we are now redefining the industry and its

measures of success for generations to come.

Sol H. Pelavin

Corporate Headquarters: 1000 Thomas Jefferson Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20007. Phone: (202) 403-5000.

AIR’s purpose is to conduct and apply behavioral and social science research to improve people’s lives and well-being, with a special emphasis on the disadvantaged. It is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization that provides research and technical assistance domestically and internationally in the areas of health, education and workforce productivity.

Sol H. PelavinCEO

David MyersPresident

Patrick RiccardsExecutive Director, Public Affairs and Communications

Larry McQuillan Director of Communications

Margaret Monrad Communications Specialist

A Message for the CEO

American Institutes for Research® ■

www.air.org

3

How do you find out how to grow the best bananas in

sub-Saharan Africa? Listen to Mr. Muthomi, a leading

banana farmer from the Meru district of Kenya, on

the radio. He was recently interviewed as part of an

innovative radio “extension” system called Farmer Voice

Radio (FVR), which reaches out to small-scale farmers in

Africa to help improve their productivity, livelihoods and

well-being.

AIR and partners in Africa are developing FVR through

a $10 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates

Foundation. Millions of small farmers in sub-Saharan

Africa are learning about new farming techniques and

resources through a network of public, private and

community radio broadcasters and agricultural experts.

FVR partner radio stations have all agreed to provide

substantial amounts of airtime for FVR programming at

no cost during prime listening hours. The project began

in July 2009, and programming began being broadcast

on nine African radio networks in Malawi and Kenya on

April 12, 2010.

The need for new ways to reach out to farmers is great.

Africa is the only continent where hunger is expected

to increase dramatically within the next 20 years

unless sustainable food sources are created. Conventional

ways of reaching farmers do not work effectively in

Africa because of the limited number of university and

government “extension” officers with little access to the

majority of small farmers in rural areas. With FVR, the

extension workers can use a radio “megaphone” to reach

more farmers.

“We are hopeful that Farmer Voice Radio will do more

than just provide state-of-the-art agricultural tips,” said

Tara Shariff, AIR’s project manager. “We also want to be

able to listen and respond to the needs and preferences

of small-scale farmers in this region. We are planning

to establish a research desk at every radio station that

will enable stations to change programming strategies

quickly based on feedback from their audience.”

There are clear signs of success. For example, in Malawi,

the farmers of Kacheta village report that the information

broadcast in the AgTips program has helped them

improve their corn harvest while reducing post-harvest

losses. The village chief notes that it was the first to

adopt the practices and that 200 out of 250 households

in his village now use them.

Looking ahead, Shariff said, “Radio, enhanced by cell

phones and other communication technologies offers

new hope for reaching large numbers of farmers and

truly becoming their voice. We plan to expand to other

countries in Africa as well. In the end, FVR can help

alleviate hunger in Africa over the long term.”

Farmer Voice Radio: A New Force to Combat Hunger in Sub-Saharan Africa

American Institutes for Research® ■

www.air.org

4

High-achieving schools of all types — traditional, charter

and pilot — share a critical common characteristic: They

have school leaders who use their authority to adapt to

the changing needs of students and staff quickly and

deliver the support needed, according to an AIR study of

schools in Boston.

Two types of autonomy appear to have a critical

“gateway” role in empowering a school leader: autonomy

over scheduling, and over time and staffing.

The study, Out of the Debate and Into the Schools, was

commissioned by the Boston Foundation and provides

the first evidence-based research that analyzes strategies

and practices in traditional, charter and pilot schools

within a single school district.

“One of the most interesting findings of this report is

that there are two autonomies — scheduling and time

and staffing — that strongly influence the degree to

which school leaders are able to optimize autonomy in

other areas,” said Dr. Susan Bowles Therriault, a senior

AIR researcher based in Concord, Mass. “Even more

interesting is that principals of high-achieving traditional

schools, who were not necessarily granted this autonomy

by the district, were able to exert autonomy over staffing

by maneuvering around the district hiring system and

developing a strong school culture. Still, even the most

effective traditional school leaders were constrained in

their ability to control the schedule and time in school.”

“It was also notable that while the longer school day

at charter schools was important, how the extra time

was used by staff and students appeared to be the most

significant factor in high-achieving charter and pilot

schools. The best schools allowed time for teachers to

plan cooperatively, focus on professional development,

and assess and work with individual students,” said

Therriault, who co-authored the report with Allison

Gruner Gandhi, Julia Casasanto and Samantha Carney.

Students who attend charter schools have an 8.2-hour

school day on average, while traditional school students

have a 6.1-hour school day. Based on the Massachusetts

requirement that students attend school for 180 days,

this results in an estimated difference of 378 hours

per year, which is equivalent to 62 days of additional

schooling in charter schools. The key to this finding is not

the length of the school day, but how that time is used in

high-achieving charter schools. These schools embedded

Study Finds Key Elements in High-Achieving Schools: Autonomy in Both Staffing and Designing the School Day

Continued on page 5

American Institutes for Research® ■

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5

AIR has developed a new app

for the National Institutes of

Health’s National Heart, Lung,

and Blood Institute (NHLBI): a

BMI Calculator for the iPhone.

The calculator is featured in

the apps gallery of the newly

relaunched USA.gov site.

NHLBI’s online Body Mass Index

(BMI) Calculator has been a

popular tool for years, helping

users screen themselves for

weight categories. Results of

the screen may indicate health

problems. BMI is a reliable

indicator of total body fat,

which is related to the risk of

disease and death. The online BMI calculator receives

1.6 million visitors a month and ranks #1 on Google.

Now the downloadable phone application puts the fully

functioning calculator right on your phone, along with

links to resources on the NHLBI site.

Research has shown that more and more people are

using their mobile phones to interact online in many

ways, including searching for health information. Some

demographic groups that have low participation online

using traditional methods actually have a much higher

rate of smart phone adoption. To reach this growing

audience, AIR recommended that NHLBI consider

developing downloadable phone applications. Since the

BMI Calculator is consistently the largest draw for search

traffic to the site, it was natural to consider it as the first

project for development.

AIR Develops Body Mass Index Calculator App for the iPhone

support for students into the regular school day and

provided more opportunities for teachers to participate

in collective professional development, student-focused

discussion and collaborative planning time.

While scheduling and time were primarily something

that only charter schools — and some pilot schools

— were able to control, staffing was a different story.

High-achieving traditional schools were able to control

staffing on a par with pilot and charter schools. By

developing relationships with teacher training programs

and investing time in recruitment of candidates that met

the needs of students, traditional school principals were

able to ensure that new teachers fit the needs of their

school. Principals at traditional schools described taking

this control as a “risk.”

AIR’s researchers surveyed school principals and

conducted case studies, classroom observations and

a document review. The study focused on the main

difference between traditional, charter and pilot schools:

school-level autonomy in the areas of leadership and

governance, budget, staffing, professional development,

scheduling and time, and curriculum and instruction.

The study is a follow-up to the Informing the Debate

report, which found that students attending charter

schools significantly outperformed their counterparts in

traditional schools.

American Institutes for Research® ■

www.air.org

6

Say Yes to Education is committed to dramatically

increasing high school and college graduation rates for

inner-city youth. Its efforts began a quarter-century

ago, when hedge fund pioneer George Weiss offered to

pay for the college education of 112 sixth-graders at

a Philadelphia elementary school. Over the years Weiss

has given tens of millions of dollars to send inner-city

students to college, but he and Mary Ann Schmitt-

Carey, the education entrepreneur and a former AIR

vice president hired in 2006 as president of Say Yes to

Education, wanted to do more. They wanted to apply the

lessons learned from those two decades of work to an

entire school system.

After Schmitt-Carey joined Say Yes to Education, she

enlisted AIR’s help to formulate a strategy and model

for change built around closely monitoring student

performance and providing extensive support for each

school and student in grades K–12 — including providing

individual education plans, after-school and summer

enrichment programs and close attention to the health

and social and emotional needs of the students.

AIR Vice President David Osher, an authority on how

children’s social and emotional well-being affects their

learning, helped develop the plan. “It really has the

chance of being transformative, being a game changer,”

he said. “It is both bold and do-able, because it has been

designed in a realistic manner and implemented in a

sustainable way.”

Schmitt-Carey had the model and a strategy for moving

forward developed before the foundation settled on

an urban school district. During a conversation with

Syracuse University Chancellor Nancy Cantor, who serves

on AIR’s Board of Directors, Schmitt-Carey mentioned

Say Yes to Education’s desire to help an entire district.

The chancellor replied, “Have I got a city for you.”

They found a ready partner in the Syracuse school

superintendent, Daniel Lowengard, and soon were joined

by local political, civic and community leaders. In keeping

with Say Yes to Education’s longtime goal of not

only preparing disadvantaged youth for college but also

making it financially possible, Cantor and Schmitt-Carey’s

efforts have secured commitments from nearly 100

public and private colleges and universities to guarantee

full-tuition scholarships for all qualified graduates of

Syracuse public schools.

The partnership has positively affected the community

as well. Rebecca Herman, AIR’s project director for this

work and leader of the implementation study, said,

“A lot of the people we interviewed in a focus group

said, ‘We’ve never worked together before; we often

didn’t see eye-to-eye.’ ” But the opportunity changed

minds. The project was embraced not just as a way to

repair Syracuse’s public schools, but as a chance to spur

economic development for a city that has lost almost

half its population and much of its industrial base since

the 1950s.

Syracuse has 21,000 students enrolled in 33 general

enrollment schools. Fewer than half of those who enroll

in kindergarten will receive a high school diploma.

Almost a third of the city’s 142,000 residents live in

Groundbreaking Effort to Help Students and the Syracuse, N.Y., Public SchoolsContinued from page 1

Continued on page 7

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7poverty, and nearly 80 percent of students qualify for

free or reduced-price meals. Only a quarter of the city’s

population is African-American, but black students

make up more than half of the public school enrollment.

Hispanics, who are 5 percent of the population, account

for 11 percent of enrollment. Sixty-two percent of city

residents are white, but they account for less than a third

of student enrollment.

The changes under way in Syracuse schools include more

counselors and social workers, more instructional time

and planning time for teachers, and additional health

services. Vice President Joseph Biden and Education

Secretary Arne Duncan have visited the Syracuse schools

and praised the project, and the presidents of both

the American Federation of Teachers and the National

Education Association have made trips to Syracuse to see

the experiment in action.

AIR’s contributions include developing a Student

Monitoring System that identifies each student’s

academic, social-emotional and health status and makes

recommendations for addressing individual needs. The

system lets students, their parents and teachers know

whether a pupil is on track to graduate.

AIR also prepares school profiles that analyze strengths

and weaknesses and suggests ways to address gaps. The

profiles draw on school visits, surveys and other measures

of performance. Additionally, AIR is carrying out an

implementation study and two separate effectiveness

studies, as well as providing professional development

for teachers. AIR is also helping the district manage and

interpret the large volume of data being generated and

helping community organizations work with the schools.

The Student Monitoring System looks at far more than

test scores and grades. Teachers are asked to rate their

students yearly across social-emotional and academic

domains. For example, teachers are asked whether they

know of any health, behavioral or emotional issues that

might affect a student’s ability to succeed in school, how

well the student handles stress and whether he or she

can concentrate in class. In the year ahead, students in

grades 6 and above will be given a chance to answer such

questions themselves and also will be asked whether

their friends and family support the idea of their going to

college. Teachers will share with parents the information

on whether or not a student is on track to graduate high

school, and what is needed to address identified needs or

further enrich strengths.

Say Yes to Education is contributing $10 million to the

initiative, and AIR is donating $7.5 million over five

years. All told, $31.5 million has been raised, including

$9 million allocated by state and local governments

and the school district, $2 million from the Wegmans

supermarket chain and $1.1 million from Syracuse

University. Those funds will help provide scholarships for

graduates who go to public colleges, and they pay for

summer school and enrichment programs, as well as full-

time Say Yes to Education staff members in every school.

American Institutes for Research® ■

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8

The study used a mixed-methods approach that included

focus groups, one-on-one interviews and an online

survey with more than 1,500 individuals. All participants

had health coverage through an employer or a union-

sponsored health plan. The study found that:

■ A total of 41 percent said they had not asked ques-

tions of their physician during a visit or did not

mention a medical problem they were experiencing

because they were unsure how to talk to the doctor

or because the physician seemed to be in a hurry.

■ No more than 34 percent said they could ever

remember their physician discussing what medical

research had shown about the best way to manage

their care.

■ More than half of respondents said they never

took notes during a medical appointment, and 28

percent said they never brought questions to ask

their doctors.

Participants believed that medical guidelines inherent

in the “evidence-based” approach could be too rigid,

interfering with providers’ abilities to tailor care to the

needs of individual patients. Respondents also perceived

these guidelines as a means to protect physicians from

potential lawsuits or as tactics invoked to deny care.

Respondents reported a deep faith in the ability of

their doctors, relying on them heavily for information,

interpretation and guidance on treatment options. Most

assumed that their health care providers always based

decisions on medical evidence.

Health care writer Dana Blankenhorn, describing the

findings of the study in an article on ZDNet, noted that

“the idea of using data to drive medical decisions is the

key to any health reform.” He said the AIR report “gives

serious pause to all reformers, because it shows patients

still do not buy the premise … If insurers or government

are to say no to any type of care, that decision must be

based on facts. Debates must move toward the evidence

and away from emotion.”

AIR has developed web-based tools to help patients

better understand the goals of evidence-based

care. Communication Toolkit: Using Information

to Get High Quality Care (available at http://www.

businessgrouphealth.org/usinginformation/) is a

collection of materials designed to support understanding

about key concepts in evidence-based health care so

patients and their families can make decisions about

medical care based on research and evidence about what

works.

The toolkit translates difficult-to-understand concepts

for a mainstream audience, with topics including

understanding the basics of health care quality, cost

and quality, tips for getting good quality care and

using the Internet to find health information. AIR is

currently conducting a project to increase the toolkit’s

dissemination, implementation and effectiveness.

AIR Finds Consumers’ Understanding of Evidence-Based Health Care LackingContinued from page 1

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9

Nationally recognized business

leaders Edward Hamburg and

Andrew Liakopoulos have

joined AIR’s Board of Directors.

Hamburg advises or serves on the

board of directors of numerous

high-technology companies and

is a venture partner with

Morgan Stanley Private Equity.

Liakopoulos is a principal in

the Human Capital Practice

of Deloitte Consulting LLP and

leads Deloitte’s National Talent

Strategies practice.

Both served on the board of directors of Learning Point

Associates, an education research and consulting firm

that merged with AIR on August 1, 2010.

“We welcome the valuable insights and contributions

that both of these outstanding leaders bring with them,”

said Patricia Gurin, the chair of AIR’s Board of Directors.

“We are delighted that they are joining us.”

Hamburg is the former executive vice president of

corporate operations and chief financial officer of SPSS

Inc., a global provider of predictive analytics computer

software and services, which was acquired by IBM in

2009. He earned a Ph.D. from the department of political

science at the University of Chicago.

Liakopoulos has worked with many Fortune 100

companies in the areas of talent management,

organization strategy, change management, human

resource transformation and learning development. He

holds an M.B.A. from the University of Illinois with a

concentration in organizational behavior.

“Learning Point is a true leader when it comes to

research and evaluation, direct professional services and

policy knowledge, particularly at the school, district and

state levels,” said AIR CEO Sol H. Pelavin. “Its work is a

strong complement to the district, state, national and

international education efforts long led by AIR, and we

are all quite excited by the impact we will have on our

nation’s educational infrastructure.”

Learning Point CEO Gina Burkhardt said that, “AIR has

long stood as the gold standard for behavioral and social

science research, particularly in the education sector.

By bringing Learning Point’s significant assets to such

a strong organization, we can provide a continuum of

research, assessment and technical assistance at all

levels that are unmatched and unrivaled.”

The merger was effective August 1, 2010. AIR is

headquartered in Washington, D.C., and Learning Point

is based in Chicago.

Burkhardt has become an AIR executive vice president

and the director of the organization’s Education, Human

Development and the Workforce (EHDW) Division. The

division’s more than 450 individuals will include Learning

Point Associates’ staff and current AIR EHDW employees.

Burkhardt succeeds Dr. David Myers as division director.

On July 12, AIR announced that Myers would succeed

Pelavin as AIR’s president and CEO on January 1, 2011.

As part of that transition, Myers became president of

AIR on September 1, 2010, reporting directly to Pelavin,

who will remain CEO until December 31, 2010.

AIR and Learning Point Associates Join ForcesContinued from page 1

Hamburg and Liakopoulos Join AIR’s Board of Directors

Continued on page 10

Andrew Liakopoulos

Edward Hamburg

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10

AIR, under the PHARE (Programme Haitien d’Appui à la

Reforme de l’Education) education program funded by

the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID),

is working with the Haitian Ministry of Education and

Professional Training (MENFP) on recovery efforts from

the January disaster.

One of the most urgent needs has been to assemble

classrooms and schools to replace structures in the

heavily damaged areas of Port-au-Prince, Jacmel, Petit-

Goâve and Nippes, as well as Saint-Marc, Gonaïves, Cap

Haïtien and Les Cayes. Thus far, AIR’s efforts have made

it possible for more than 32,000 children to return to

school.

AIR has developed temporary classroom structures made

of steel bars and metal treated roofs that are hurricane

and earthquake resistant. They can be assembled in

approximately five days by local workers, depending on

the extent of the damage at each school site. In addition

to assembling classrooms, AIR’s efforts include providing

school supplies for teachers and students, as well as

recreational equipment. The project also is providing

teachers with special training to help them deal with

the social and emotional needs of children still suffering

trauma caused by the earthquake.

The first USAID-funded transitional school opened in

Bel Aire, an impoverished section of Port-au-Prince, on

April 5, 2010. The facility has drawn widespread interest

and praise. Haitian first lady Elisabeth Preval visited the

facility, as have U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana,

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida and Rep.

Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas, as well as Haitian officials

and representatives from USAID and the U.S. Department

of State.

Learning Point Associates was founded in 1984 as the

North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL),

a single-contract regional organization created by the

U.S. Department of Education. In 2004, NCREL became

Learning Point Associates, a diversified consulting firm

with clients ranging from state education agencies and

single-school districts to private foundations and for-

profit corporations. It continues to run NCREL, now known

as Regional Education Laboratory Midwest (REL Midwest).

AIR is one of the world’s largest behavioral and

social science research organizations, and addresses

critical education, health, workforce and international

development challenges. With 1,500 employees, AIR’s

foundation is in education research. The organization

currently stands as a national leader in teaching and

learning improvement, providing the research, assessment,

evaluation and technical assistance to ensure all students

have access to a high-quality, effective education.

AIR and Learning Point Associates Join ForcesContinued from page 9

AIR Helps Earthquake-Devastated Haiti Rebuild Its SchoolsContinued from page 1

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11

Daniel Montoya represented AIR at the XVIII International

AIDS Conference, the biennial meeting of the global AIDS

community that attracted 19,300 participants from

193 countries to Vienna, Austria. He presented a poster

on the Act Against AIDS communications campaign

produced by AIR for the Centers for Disease Control

and Prevention’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral

Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention.

Dr. Daniel Sherman spoke in Oslo, Norway, to the

International Conference on Education, Social Capital

and Health, which was sponsored by the Organisation

for Economic Co-operation and Development and the

Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research. He

discussed synthesizing the research evidence on the

relationship between education, health and social capital.

Dr. Gary Phillips testified before the U.S. Senate

Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions

during a 2½-hour hearing on the reauthorization of

the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). In

his testimony, Phillips encouraged Congress to include

common content standards and common performance

standards in ESEA reauthorization. He also recommended

that Congress encourage states to use 21st century

technology-based tests that are more accurate, less

burdensome, faster and cheaper than the current paper-

and-pencil exams.

Kim Gattis received the 2010 Distinguished Service

Award from the Association of State Supervisors of

Mathematics in conjunction with ETA/Cuisenaire. The

award recognizes “outstanding dedication, leadership

and vision in the pursuit of excellence in mathematics

education.”

Dr. Brad Strickland was one of the featured speakers

at a symposium titled “Linkages Between Gender, AIDS

and Development: Implications for U.S. Policy” hosted

by the Global Health Policy Center of the Center for

Strategic and International Studies in Washington,

D.C. He discussed AIR’s work in Zambia involving HIV

prevention in schools under the CHANGES2 project.

Dr. David Osher participated with other nationally

recognized experts on children’s behavioral and

development issues in a panel discussion on research-

based strategies for safe schools during a briefing hosted

by the American Educational Research Association (AERA)

at the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington,

D.C. The discussion focused on research findings about

preventing youth violence, a subject that was featured

in AERA’s Educational Researcher.

Dr. Tom Parrish and Dr. Sami Kitmitto gave two

presentations at the national conference of the

Education Writers Association in San Francisco. They

discussed the preliminary results of an AIR study they

are conducting with Larisa Shambaugh on the “Status

of K–12 Education in California at a Time of Fiscal Crisis.”

The final report will be released this year.

Nebeyou Abebe attended a White House meeting on

federal HIV prevention efforts aimed at black men. The

Office of National AIDS Policy convened the meeting to

raise awareness about the domestic HIV epidemic among

black men and promote black community involvement

in the development of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy.

He directs AIR’s efforts on the “I Know” project, which is

part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s

national HIV/AIDS education and awareness campaign

targeting young African-American adults.

Staff in the News…

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12

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www.air.org

Making Research Relevant

®

Cheryl Vince Whitman, an internationally

recognized expert on health and human

development issues, is joining AIR as a

senior vice president focusing on a broad

range of domestic and international

health issues.

Whitman served as a senior vice

president at the Education Development

Center, Inc. (EDC), and was the director

of the organization’s health and human

development division. She directed the work of the World Health

Organization Collaborating Centre to Promote Health through Schools

and Communities.

At AIR, Whitman will focus primarily on growing the organization’s

work in the areas of health, mental health, international health and

curriculum development. Her areas of focus include emotional and

mental health; substance abuse; injury, violence and suicide; HIV and

AIDS; and sexually transmitted infections. Along with working with AIR

staff at corporate headquarters in Washington, D.C., she will establish

an AIR office in the Boston area.

“We are fortunate to have Cheryl Vince Whitman join the AIR team,”

AIR President and CEO Sol H. Pelavin said. “In recent years, we have

seen tremendous growth in our health-focused work as well as in our

international development effort, and we are confident that Cheryl will

help us continue that trend, putting her vast knowledge and expertise

to use as we continue to pursue the AIR mission and make the world a

better, more healthy place.”

Her publications include The Role of International Organizations to

Promote School-Based Mental Health (2007) and Case Studies in Global

School Health Promotion: From Research to Practice (2009). Whitman

earned her master’s degree from the Harvard Graduate School of

Education and her bachelor’s degree from Boston University.

Cheryl Vince Whitman Joins AIR