Sara Evans serves as a technical assistance provider for the PROGRESS Center. In this role, she provides district, state, and national level coaching and professional development in the areas of special education services and policy, transition services, future planning, MTSS, and systems coaching. Before joining AIR, Sara worked in the field of special education for over 23 years as a K-12 special education teacher, Program Specialist, and Director of Student Services. In addition, she has led the implementation of district, regional, and statewide MTSS implementations. Sara earned her bachelor’s degree in Elementary (K-8) and Special Education (PreK-12) from Northern Arizona University and her master’s in Educational Leadership from Montana State University.

Steven Prater serves as a technical assistance provider for the PROGRESS Center and leads the Center's intensive technical assistance work with PROGRESS Center partnership sites. For almost 20 years, Mr. Prater has worked at the state and local levels in general and special education. Prior to joining AIR, he led a project for the state of Texas in partnership with the National Center on Intensive Intervention about training school and district staff on data-based individualization. He is a former secondary math teacher, licensed specialist in school psychology, campus administrator, and manager of technical assistance in special education at the Texas Education Agency (TEA). In his position at the TEA, he developed and oversaw many projects to improve outcomes for students served by special education. He earned his Master of Arts in School Psychology from Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas.