Gina Burkhardt is executive vice president of AIR, one of the largest behavioral and social science research organizations in the world. AIR, a not-for-profit organization, conducts and applies research in the areas of education, health, international development, and work and training to improve people’s lives and well-being, with a special emphasis on the disadvantaged. As director of AIR’s Education program, Burkhardt is responsible for 500 employees and a $100 million annual budget.
Burkhardt’s expertise includes leadership development, organizational development and systems change, district and school improvement, and the application of research to policy and practice efforts. As CEO, she led the transformation of the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory, a single federally-funded contract, to Learning Point Associates, a highly successful nonprofit education research and consulting organization serving states, districts, foundations, corporations, and the federal government. Learning Point Associates merged with AIR in August 2010.
A lifelong educator, Burkhardt began her career as a middle school mathematics and science teacher in upstate New York. Since then, she has held positions in higher education, managed school reform projects at the regional educational laboratories, and consulted nationally and internationally on education policy and practice as well as education systems design. Burkhardt completed her doctoral coursework in educational psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and completed coursework in the Executive Education Program at University of Chicago Booth School of Business. She has authored publications, including a book on organizational change, and has given multiple presentations on 21st century learning environments, data-driven decision making, organizational change theory, and the application of effective research and development in education. She currently holds and has held several professional appointments, including serving as a board member for the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, the University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research, Editorial Projects in Education, which publishes Education Week, Knowledge Alliance, and Manufacturing Renaissance.
