Ray Melecio, Ph.D. is an Arroyo Research Services Senior Associate and leads the Arroyo Research Services Migrant Education practice. Dr. Melecio is recognized throughout the national Migrant Education Program (MEP) for his expertise in Identification and Recruitment (ID&R) policy and programming. For over 25 years he has provided support at the federal level on key eligibility and ID&R regulatory and guidance issues and has managed statewide ID&R and MEP operations including in Florida and Louisiana. He provides programmatic expertise to MEPs in several states including Louisiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Texas, and Pennsylvania. He has helped facilitate more than ten national ID&R forums and organized speakers from across the country who provided sessions focused on the latest practices and policies in ID&R and has regularly presented at national conferences on key MEP topics. Dr. Melecio has also been part of major federally funded initiatives related to ID&R, including the development of ID&R documents such as the ID&R manual, ID&R curriculum, and has participated in the Office of Migrant Education’s most recent subject matter expert workgroup in 2018. He has served as the Director of ESCORT, a national migrant education resource center. Dr. Melecio was State Coordinator of Identification and Recruitment for the Pennsylvania Migrant Education Program. He holds a Ph.D. from the College of Education at Penn State University with an emphasis in Bilingual Education. With Arroyo Research Services, he serves as project manager for the migrant education team in Tennessee, and has led projects in Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma, and Kentucky.