Lisa Lachlan, Ed.D.

Lisa Lachlan, Director of Strategic Partnerships

Lisa Lachlan, Ed.D., is a principal research scientist in the Professional Services program at American Institutes for Research (AIR). Dr. Lachlan has more than a decade of experience managing policy, practice and systems change projects in education at the federal, state and district levels. At the GTL Center, she spearheads support to states and districts on the design, implementation, and study of mentoring and induction, including development of the Mentoring and Induction Toolkit 2.0 aimed at addressing equity by increasing beginning teacher retention and effectiveness in high-need schools. Dr. Lachlan also directs the Mentoring and Induction Affinity Group—a group of six states and nine partner districts focusing specifically on this topic as part of the Talent for Turnaround Leadership Academy, and leads the GTL Center’s team providing intensive supports on mentoring and induction to Hawaii, Indiana, and Oregon.  

She also directs projects on educator equity, educator talent management, and professional learning, teacher leadership, instructional coaching, rural recruitment and retention, and educator effectiveness systems for the GTL Center and the California Comprehensive Center while serving as a senior advisor to multiple regional comprehensive centers. At AIR, as an expert in educator effectiveness and the professional growth of teachers, 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 North Carolina General Administration’s Study of Beginning Teacher Needs, 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 State Support Network.

Under her leadership, AIR continues to strategically partner with regional education laboratories, other national non-profit organizations and associations, state education agencies and district teams in the development, implementation and evaluation of education policy initiatives and in the development of communication, dissemination and implementation plans focused on the quality of teaching and learning.

Lisa's Recent Highlights

Resource: Evidence-Based Practices to Support Equity: A Snapshot on Mentoring and Induction. Center on Great Teachers and Leaders. February 2019.

Journal Article: Learner-ready to expert practitioner: Academy supports teachers’ transitions while addressing equity. The Learning Professional. February 2019 Vol. 40 No 1

Blog: Opportunities to Use ESSA to Support and Retain New Teachers. EdNote Blog. Education Commision of the States. May 10, 2018.

White Papers: Uncommon Measures series: four white papers focused on alternative measures of teacher effectiveness. November 2015. American Institutes for Research.

Journal Article: Targeted comprehensive induction for urban educators: An exploration of teacher motivation and retention. The New Educator. Volume 7, 2011- Issue 2.  

Journal Article: The evolution of new teacher induction policy: Support, specificity, and autonomy. Educational Policy. November 2011. Vol. 24 No 6.