Lisa Lachlan, Ed.D., is a principal research scientist in the Professional Services program at American Institutes for Research (AIR) and supports the Region 9 Comprehensive Center (R9CC) Project Teams. Dr. Lachlan has more than a decade of experience as an expert in educator effectiveness and the professional growth of teachers and leaders.
She currently serves as the Director of Strategic Partnerships for the Center on Great Teachers and Leaders (GTL Center) at AIR. As a part of this work, she is deeply engaged as a member of the OECD Teacher and Leader International Study (TALIS) Questionnaire Expert Group supporting the development of the research-based concept framework and papers for the 2024 TALIS. Because of her deep expertise in education policy, Dr. Lachlan directs large-scale, multi-year projects and has served as a content expert for multiple education workforce initiatives, including but not limited to two Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation projects: Supporting Teacher Effectiveness Project and the Teacher Leader Network Study, the University of California at Davis’ Resourcing Excellence in Education (REEd) Project, the Ohio Department of Education’s Implementing the Ohio Teacher Evaluation System and the U.S. Department of Education-funded Center on Great Teachers and Leaders (GTL) and State Support Network.
Dr. Lachlan has also served as an expert advisor and led many stakeholder committees and decision-making groups with expert facilitation including the U.S. Department of Education’s Reform Support Network, Teacher Incentive Fund, and the National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality. Throughout her career, Dr. Lachlan has conducted research and applied that research to programs, practices, and policies while working with government education agencies. She regularly writes and disseminates reports, provides feedback for colleagues on everything from survey items to frameworks, engages with media outlets, and presents at conferences nationally and internationally. Her work has been published in The Learning Professional, The New Educator, and Educational Policy.