PROSPECT ASSOCIATES, LTD.,
BECOMES PART OF AMERICAN INSTITUTES FOR RESEARCH
- Nationally-recognized Firms Combine Expertise to Strengthen Services -

(Washington, DC) - The American Institutes for Research (AIR) today announced that the award-winning health research and communications firm, Prospect Associates, has joined it, strengthening both organizations' capabilities to help confront and solve societal problems.

AIR, founded in 1946, is perhaps best known for its work in the fields of education and human performance. Based in Washington, DC, the not-for-profit AIR conducts behavioral and social science research to help government and private sector clients improve education in the U.S. and internationally, the mental health of children and their families, child development, workplace effectiveness, and the user-friendliness of technology.

Prospect Associates, based in Silver Spring, MD, has a 21-year record of addressing public health challenges through communication, research, information technology, knowledge management, social marketing, training and technical assistance, and consensus development. Prospect has addressed numerous health matters such as tobacco use, nutrition, physical activity, and reproductive health, working with the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Agency for International Development, numerous states, and others.

"There is a natural synergy between AIR's use of sophisticated behavioral and social science research to solve problems and Prospect's exceptional skill at delivering science-based health information in ways that help improve people's lives," said David Goslin, AIR's President. "We have shared a mission of helping people make choices based on research evidence instead of guesswork."

AIR has 525 staff members in its four Washington, DC-area offices and two other sites, located in Palo Alto, CA and Concord, MA. The organization had 1999 revenues of $62 million. Prospect has 141 employees in Silver Spring, MD, Frederick, MD, and Atlanta, GA, and had 1999 revenues of $17 million.

Prospect was founded in 1979 by Laura Henderson, President and CEO, who will continue to serve as president of Prospect and will also be a senior vice president and member of the Board of Directors of AIR. "What we have created is a new type of company," Henderson said. "It recognizes the important - and interdependent - roles of scientific, technical and creative people in promoting positive change. It also represents a well-deserved increase in opportunities for Prospect's talented staff."

"Each organization benefits as a result of this development," said Goslin. "AIR's sophisticated research and analytic capabilities will add significantly to the services Prospect will be able to provide its clients, while Prospect will enliven and extend the communications activities for AIR's clients."

Backgrounder: Scope and Services of Prospect Associates

Prospect's work has been and will continue to be focused on conducting health communications research, social marketing, and technology-based communications programs directed at changes in behavior. In the area of improving people's health, Prospect has created programs to address tobacco use, breast cancer awareness and early detection, cardiovascular health, reproductive health and better nutrition, HIV/AIDS, and diabetes awareness and treatment.

In working with clients to design and implement programs, Prospect conducts research and evaluation; integrates and applies information technology; designs and implements health communications campaigns including media and advocacy strategies; designs and provides training and technical assistance; and manages conferences, publications, and special events. A signature area of expertise is social marketing, the application of marketing principles, techniques and technologies to alleviate social and health problems.

Recent Prospect activities include:

• Developing a health information network and virtual clearinghouse for the Office of Prevention, Education and Control's educational programs at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (one of the National Institutes of Health).
• Providing communications support to the centers, institutes and offices of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
• Providing technical support services for the National Cancer Institute.
• Providing research, evaluation and communications support to the National Cancer Institute's Office of Cancer Communications, including the 5 A Day campaign, an effort to encourage Americans to eat five or more servings of fruits and vegetables each day.
• Conducting marketing and outreach programs for Peachcare for Kids, the state of Georgia's Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
• Planning and implementing educational and outreach services in support of the state of Maryland's Tobacco Control Program and their Breast and Cervical Cancer Program.
• Providing conference and publication support for the Office of the Medical Application of Research (one of the offices of the National Institutes of Health) OMAR Consensus Development Conferences.
• Providing technical assistance to Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs to improve the lives of families in developing countries.

Prospect has won more than 20 major communications awards since 1998, including receipt just last week of the "Addy," from the Advertising Club of Metropolitan Washington for "Ready Not", a television public service announcement promoting women's daily use of folic acid to prevent birth defects. "Ready Not" is part of a campaign sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Last month, the Communicator Awards 2000 Print Media competition gave its award of distinction to Prospect's "Early Warning Signs" print ad developed for the Breast and Cervical Cancer Program of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, urging women to get annual Pap tests.

Backgrounder: Scope and Services of AIR

After designing the selection and training for World War II bomber pilots, AIR's founding President John Flanagan launched AIR in 1946 as a behavioral and social science research organization devoted to improving human performance. That work continues today, as AIR works with clients to help them select the staff they need and assess and maximize performance and productivity.

With the 1994 acquisition of the Washington-based education research firm Pelavin Associates by AIR - followed by the 1997 purchase of the Institute for International Research - AIR greatly expanded its education research services. These now encompass research in adult education and literacy, assessment, elementary and secondary education, education finance, federal education statistics, education technology, higher education, international and comparative education, school reform, and special education.

Recent AIR activities have included:

• Developing the National Assessment of Adult Literacy, a U.S. Department of Education survey slated for 2002, designed to provide 10-year trend data on the skills of Americans over age 16.
• Operating a U.S. Department of Education-sponsored center promoting community-wide collaborations to better serve children with emotional and behavioral problems (www.cecp.air.org).
• Researching and evaluating education reforms in the U.S. by taking a critical look at the research and evaluating the effects of reforms as they relate to student achievement.
• Supporting education improvements in 13 developing countries through the Improving Educational Quality project, sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development. The effort builds educators' and researchers' capacity to obtain and use knowledge of school policies and practices.
• Developing a new U.S. Department of Labor system to describe all jobs within the national economy - the basic source of information on what people in various occupations do.
• Developing the California High School Exit Examination and the Philadelphia Citywide Assessment.
• Researching how America's special education services are financed, on behalf of the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs.

"AIR also serves clients in the areas of early childhood, children's mental health, employment equity, humanizing technology, and understanding communities," AIR President David Goslin added. "Our work is collaborative, drawing upon a research tool kit to help clients understand and solve their problems. Throughout all of these activities, our emphasis is on producing results clients can use, based on objective evidence, methodological rigor, and the use of multidisciplinary approaches."