Jodi Jacobson Chernoff, Ph.D., is a principal researcher at AIR contributing to the outcome/impact study for the evaluation.  She has more than 20 years of experience conducting early childhood research, both nationally and internationally, with a focus on assessment and survey development.  She has spent more than 20 years supporting the US Department of Education, leading the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study work and the International Early Learning Study, contributing to study design, instrument and assessment development, technical documentation, and dissemination activities. She has supported other early education and home visiting program evaluations, with a focus on family engagement, early literacy, mathematics, and social emotional skills, using both quantitative and qualitative research methods.

Stephanie D’Souza, PhD, is a senior researcher at AIR and contributes to the outcome/impact study for the evaluation. She supports a variety of early childhood research and evaluation projects at AIR. Her primary responsibilities include implementation support and conducting analyses of program outcomes using advanced quantitative methods. Prior to joining AIR, Dr. D’Souza accumulated 10 years of education research and evaluation experience in professional and academic settings covering a wide range of prekindergarten–12 and postsecondary topics, including student mobility, high school reforms, and kindergarten readiness.

Stephanie McCarty 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.

Cecilia Xuning Zhang, M.Ed., is a researcher at AIR and supports the recruitment, partner outreach, and data collection for the evaluation. Her past experiences include conducting early childhood research at Vanderbilt University’s Infant Learning Lab and an internship with Sesame Workshop. She is passionate about early childhood education and has worked with families and educators both domestically and internationally.

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.

Patrick Rich, MSc, is a quantitative researcher at AIR, with a decade of experience in language and literacy development and research-practice partnerships. At AIR since 2022, he works on a variety of projects in the areas of English Learners and literacy. Prior to AIR, he served as data fellow/chief-of-staff on an elementary literacy research study (Model of Reading Engagement), as well as evaluating and supported multilingual programming at Denver Public Schools. In these roles, he has led a series of longitudinal studies on students’ language and literacy development, working with stakeholders to facilitate policy implications.