Sol H. Pelavin was the President and Chief Executive Officer of the American Institutes for Research.

Previously, Pelavin had served as AIR’s Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, a position he assumed when the education research firm he had founded in 1982, PelavinAssociates, Inc., merged with AIR to create an organization of unique capabilities across the behavioral and social sciences.

At Pelavin Associates, as President and Chief Executive Officer, Pelavin built one of the nation’s leading education-related research firms, directing wide-ranging studies in support of several federal agencies, notably the U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services (and their predecessor agencies). During these years, he and Michael Kane designed the College Board’s Equity 2000 project. By 1994, Pelavin Associates had grown to a staff of 85 including 44 staff members with advanced degrees.

Prior to founding his company, Pelavin served from 1978-1982 as Executive Officer and Vice President, respectively, for Social Science Research at the NTS Research Corporation. At NTS, he was responsible for overseeing all research activities as well as directing numerous projects, including the Education Policy Development Center, which conducted studies in the areas of academic achievement testing, school and local education agency policy planning, federal dissemination and evaluation policy, post-secondary education, and school-to-work transition.
Pelavin’s career also has included experience as a senior research analyst at the Rand Corporation (1973-74) and SRI International (1974-78), where he conducted studies of federal education policies. Earlier, he was a high school mathematics teacher, a teacher-writer in a mathematics curriculum development project (1970-71), and a supervisor of M.A.T. interns.