Michael Bryan

Michael Bryan directs large-scale studies that focus on high school and postsecondary education, including the transitions between these levels of education, as well as the academic and employment outcomes of students. He plays a leadership role in our large, multisource, longitudinal studies for the U.S. Department of Education, including the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS), High School Longitudinal Study (HSLS), and National Longitudinal Transition Study (NLTS). With experience managing large teams, multimillion-dollar budgets, and communication with clients, he offers the highest levels of both technical and professional skills.

As director of BPS, Mr. Bryan leads a team collecting data to enhance the latest wave of this long-running study of the varied journeys of college students. He manages teams developing and deploying multimode student surveys and collecting academic transcripts, providing rich data for analyses of the persistence, attainment, and labor market outcomes of beginning college students.

Mr. Bryan has also directed important aspects of the HSLS and the NLTS. For the HSLS, he has managed the collection of secondary school transcripts from more than 20,000 students at 900 schools, and a follow-up collection of the postsecondary transcripts for this cohort. He serves as project director for NLTS, a study of the transition to postsecondary education and the workforce, with a special emphasis on youth with disabilities.

In addition to his time as an education researcher, Mr. Bryan also has experience in RTI’s environmental science practice, working on brownfield redevelopment and strategic initiatives for homeland security.  From 2004 to 2008, as assistant director of the Food Systems Leadership Institute at North Carolina State University, he led the development of a curriculum and evaluation plan for a start-up leadership development program for academic leaders.