Preeya Mbekeani, Ed.D., is a quantitative researcher at AIR and contributes to the outcome/impact study for the evaluation. She has 20 years of experience in education as a teacher, policymaker, and researcher. Dr. Mbekeani has extensive experience in quantitative methods, including both experimental and quasi-experimental designs, regression analyses, and multi-level and mixed-effects models. Her areas of expertise include education policy, the high school to college transition, and racial and income-based inequalities in college enrollment and completion. Much of her research is done in partnership with state and local education agencies.  

Stephanie McCarty, MA, is a research associate at AIR and the project coordinator for the BEST Study. She also supports the process, outcome/impact, and ethnography studies for the evaluation. Prior to working at AIR, she worked as a research assistant at Northwestern University where her work focused on the impacts of parent engagement on cognitive development in children. Her research interests include family engagement in early childhood education and community impact on youth development.

Kaitlin Carson, MA, is a technical assistance consultant at AIR and contributes to the ethnography study for the evaluation. She supports a variety of early childhood research, evaluation, and technical assistance projects globally at AIR. Prior to AIR, she worked at Habitat for Humanity supporting regional research and evaluation for Africa programs as a Program Effectiveness Manager based out of Nairobi as well as supporting global programs as an Adaptive Learning Manager. She also previously worked at AIR as a qualitative research associate. Her research interests focus on education, housing, and change management.

Vivian Le, MA, is a research associate at AIR and contributes to the ethnography study for the evaluation. She supports a variety of early childhood research, evaluation, and technical assistance projects at AIR. She has prior experience working at a childcare center and a school for students with autism spectrum disorder. Her research interests include early childhood education, children with developmental disabilities, and the experiences of minority youth.

Rebecca Wang, MS, is a research associate at AIR and a quantitative analyst on the process and outcome/impact studies for BEST. She works on other implementation and impact analyses on projects related to school mental health and social-emotional learning at AIR. She has prior experience in similar roles on projects about COVID-19 response at a flagship state university, chronic absenteeism in a large urban school district, and Black-Asian race relations.

Austin Gragson, Ed.M., is a researcher at AIR and contributes to the BEST quantitative impact analysis team. At AIR, he works across projects focused on early childhood research including cost evaluation work. He is completing his doctoral degree in early childhood education, researching the extent of racial segregation in early education. He has previously worked on early childhood education research and interventions in multiple international contexts.

Ashley Darang serves as a Project Associate at AIR, where she supports both the process and impact study teams for the BEST project. In addition to her work on BEST, she focuses on early childhood and school-based initiatives. She brings extensive experience in program management, qualitative research, and stakeholder collaboration, having previously held roles in afterschool STEM scholarship programs and leadership development initiatives.

Patrick Steele is a Research Assistant at AIR, where he supports the Process Study team for the BEST project. In addition to the work on the BEST, he focuses on literacy, MTSS, and early childhood research initiatives. He brings experience in both quantitative and qualitative research, as well as extensive project management and client management skills.