From CRMDA
Personnel
The Center for Research Methods and Data (CRMDA) Analysis Program expects to be adding additional faculty in the coming years. Currently, the following interim Personnel are:
Contents |
Core Personnel
Todd D. Little
Professor
Center Director, Department of Psychology
Ph.D., 1988, University of California at Riverside
| Research Areas: |
| Psychometric methods, structural equation modeling, longitudinal modeling, selection effects, multi-level modeling. |
Quantitative Program | Developmental Program | AgencyLab
Paul E. Johnson
Professor
Center Associate Director
Department of Political Science
Ph.D., 1988 Washington University in St. Louis
| Research Areas: |
| Computer simulation, Programming, Generalized Linear Model, Research Methodology |
Carol Woods
Associate Professor
Center Associate Director
Department of Psychology
Ph.D., 2004, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
| Research Areas: |
| My research focuses primarily on improving tools for analyzing categorical data including ordinal measures of association, methods for testing differential item functioning, and item response models with nonnormal latent variables. |
Jason Lee
Center Coordinator
Research Associate
Schiefelbusch Life Span Institute
Ph.D., 2009, University of Kansas
Curriculum Vitae
| Research Areas: |
| Structural equation modeling, item response theory, differential item functioning, and multilevel modeling. |
Chantelle Dowsett
Research Associate
Ph.D., 2006, University of Texas at Austin
Curriculum Vitae
| Research Areas: |
| Program evaluation, early childhood interventions, longitudinal research methods, secondary data analysis. |
Sadaaki Fukui
Research Associate
Ph.D., 2005, Osaka City University, Japan
Curriculum Vitae
| Research Areas: |
| Quantitative, qualitative, and mixed research methods and program evaluation, structural equation modeling and multilevel modeling, intervention and international research in Social Work. |
Mijke Rhemtulla
Research Associate
Ph.D., University of British Columbia
| Research Areas: |
| Mijke recently received her PhD in developmental and quantitative psychology from the University of British Columbia. She is broadly interested in studying methods for modeling latent variables with non-ideal (i.e., real world) data. |
Graham Rifenbark
Research Assistant
B.A., 2010, University of Kansas
Curriculum Vitae
| Research Areas: |
| My interests lie in missing data estimation, structural equation modeling, and categorical data. |
Alex Schoemann
Research Associate
Ph.D., 2011, University of Kansas
| Research Areas: |
| Structural equation modeling, multilevel modeling,multilevel SEM, meta-analysis, computer simulation, and social psychology. |
Amber Watts
Research Associate
Lifespan Institute, Gerontology Center
Ph.D., 2008, University of Southern California
| Research Areas: |
| Gerontology, Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, structural equation modeling and longitudinal methods |
Shalynn Howard
Administrative Associate Sr.
Phone: 785-864-3353
Jo Eis
Accountant
Phone: 785-864-1269
Jeff Friedrich
Administrative Associate Sr.
Phone: 785-864-3353
Responsibilities include:
Grant preparation
Grant documentation and effort reporting
WinStat accounts, log-in issues, and general questions
Website maintenance and updates
Requests for assistance with research methods and data analysis
Proof-reading grants, articles, chapters, etc.
CRMDA Affiliates
Pascal Deboeck
Assistant Professor
Quantitative Psychology
Ph.D., 2007, University of Notre Dame
| Research Areas: |
| Intraindividual Variability, Differential Equation Models, Dynamical Systems. |
David K. Johnson
Assistant Professor
Clinical Psychology
Ph.D., 2003, Washington University of St. Louis
Curriculum Vitae
| Research Areas: |
| Gerontology, Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, structural equation modeling and longitudinal methods |
Kristopher J. Preacher
Assistant Professor
Quantitative Psychology
Ph.D., 2003, Ohio State University
| Research Areas: |
| Latent variable analysis, structural equation modeling, correlation and regression analysis, multilevel modeling, and longitudinal modeling. |
Quantitative Program Personal Site
Wei Wu
Assistant Professor
Ph.D., 2008, Arizona State University
| Research Areas: |
| Structural Equation Modeling, Longitudinal Modeling, Missing Data Estimation, Regression Modeling |
Graduate Students
Aaron Boulton
KU Dept. of Psychology
Phone: 785-864-3353
Advisor: Todd D. Little
| I am a third-year student in the Quantitative Psychology program. My primary research interest is structural equation modeling (SEM). In particular, I am interested in multilevel SEM, model fit evaluation, model selection, and Bayesian estimation. I am also working with an international team of researchers on the evaluation and dissemination of the KiVa program. KiVa is an innovative anti-bullying intervention developed in Finland that targets the social context in which bullying takes place. |
Ian Carroll
KU Dept. of Psychology
Phone: 785-864-3353
Advisor: Carol Woods
| I am a first year graduate student in the Quantitative Psychology program. I recently earned a BA in Psychology with a minor in Statistics from the University of Denver. My research interests are categorical data analysis, psychometrics, and meta-analysis. As far as statistical software is concerned, I have experience with SPSS, SAS, JMP, and R. |
Hsiang-Feng (Melody) Chen
KU Dept. of Education
Phone: 785-864-3353
Advisors: John Poggio and Todd D. Little
Website: Personal Website
| I am a Doctoral Candidate in Educational Psychology and Research (EPR), specializing in Research, Evaluation, Measurement and Statistics (REMS) at KU. My research interests are Item Response Theory, Structural Equation Modeling, cross-cultural studies, large-scale assessment (e.g., Program of International Student Assessment), and students’ self-concepts such as self-efficacy and motivations, particularly as they relate to learning and academic achievement. My most recent research focus is on testing the assessment items for Differential Item Functioning (DIF) between different countries, cultures, or language translations. I have experience in working on statistics and packages like SPSS, LISERL, BILOG-MG, WinGen and SAS. |
Jie Chen
KU Dept. of Education
Phone: 785-864-3353
Advisor: Neal Kingston
| I am a doctoral student in the Educational Measurement program. Before attending KU, I received a M.A. from East China Normal University in 2003. My primary research interests include: instructional sensitivity of test items in high-stakes standardized tests, applied statistics and measurement, educational and psychological item analysis, educational assessment and policy. |
Scott Drotar
KU Dept. of Psychology
Phone: 785-864-3353
Advisor: Pascal Deboeck
| I am a third year PhD student in the quant program. I am originally from a small town in Indiana. I graduated from Notre Dame with a bachelors degree in mathematics specializing in life sciences in 2009. My primary research interest is in dynamical systems. Dynamical systems is an area that is used to model change in a system over time, and is especially useful in psychology for modeling intra-individual change in longitudinal studies. |
Mauricio Garnier-Villarreal
KU Dept. of Psychology
Phone: 785-864-3353
Advisors: Todd D. Little and David Johnson
| I am a first year graduate student, come from Costa Rica where I got my BA and Lic in Psychology from the University of Costa Rica. My research interests are structural equation modeling, longitudinal data analysis, missing data, developmental psychology, aging, Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, cognition and emotion. |
Kim Gibson
KU Dept. of Psychology
Phone: 785-864-3353
Advisor: Todd D. Little
| I followed a roundabout path to become a graduate student in quantitative psychology at KU. I began with a science bachelors in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Next, I spent over a decade in industry, primarily designing, writing, and testing software, as well as managing others who were designing, writing, and testing software. A few other detours were included, of course. With professional and life experience came the realization that my favorite subjects were math and psychology, and that I might enjoy academia - so I took another turn on the path to graduate school. Now I get to pursue fun and useful interests, such as applying open source tools, such as R, to statistical modeling. |
Fei Gu
KU Dept. of Education
Phone: 785-864-3353
Advisor: Neal Kingston
| Coming with his BS in Statistics, Fei received his MS in Education from the Department of Psychology & Research in Education at KU in 2009. He is currently working on his doctoral degree under the direction of Professor Neal Kingston. His major interest is on the statistical analyses using SAS, including Structural Equation Modeling using PROC CALIS, Multilevel Medeling using PROC MIXED, and various Monte Carlo studies. |
Jared Harpole
KU Dept. of Psychology
Phone: 785-864-3353
Advisors: Carol Woods and Todd D. Little
| I am a first year graduate student with a B.S. degree in Business Administration. Prior to graduate school, I spent 7 years working in sales and marketing in the Kansas City area. My current research interests are in categorical data analysis, SEM, kernel density estimation, and missing data. I have experience using SPSS, SAS, LISREL, MPlus, and R. |
Waylon Howard
KU Dept. of Psychology
Website: Personal Website
Phone: 785-864-3353
Advisor: Todd D. Little
Curriculum Vitae
| I am originally from the Ozark Mountain region of North Central Arkansas. Before attending KU I received a B.A. in psychology from Lyon College in 2004 and a M.S. in experimental psychology from Emporia State University in 2006. I am currently a sixth year quantitative student working under the direction of Todd D. Little, Ph.D. I am also a graduate research assistant for Juniper Gardens Children’s Project lead by Charlie Greenwood, Ph.D. My primary research interests include: structural equation modeling, longitudinal data analysis, multilevel modeling, and missing data. |
Robert Hughes
KU Dept. of Sociology
Phone: 785-864-3353
Advisor: Elif Andac
| I am a 6th year PhD student in the Department of Sociology. Growing up in a small town in southern New Mexico, I graduated with a B.A. in Sociology from New Mexico State University in 2006 and received my Master’s Degree in Sociology from the University of Kansas in 2008. My primary areas of specialization are political and historical sociology and have fostered a methodological interest in longitudinal models, and concept measurement. Currently, I am conducting dissertation research examining the influence of economic and civil society development on the variation of inclusiveness within nationalist state institutions (i.e., citizenship laws) over time. |
Fan Jia
KU Dept. of Psychology
Phone: 785-864-3353
Advisors: Todd D. Little and Wei Wu
| I became a quantitative psychology graduate student in 2010. After getting a master’s degree in Economics in 2005, I spent 4 years working with commercial data in a consulting company in Beijing. My current research interests include: structural equation modeling, multilevel modeling, bootstrapping, and missing data analysis. I have experience using SPSS, SAS and LISREL, and R. |
Terry Jorgensen
KU Dept. of Psychology
Phone: 785-864-3353
Advisors: Todd D. Little
| Terry Jorgensen earned his BS in Psychology and MS in Applied Statistics from Kennesaw State University (just north of Atlanta, GA), where he also worked in the KSU Psychology Department as the undergraduate research lab coordinator. His prior research focused on the teaching of psychology. Terry chose to attend KU's doctoral program based on their outstanding reputation in longitudinal data analysis. As a first-year student in the KU quantitative psychology program, my research interests include applied missing data analysis and the evaluation of model fit in the context of structural equation modeling. |
William Kennedy
KU Dept. of Psychology
Phone: 785-864-3353
Advisor: Todd D. Little
| With an undergraduate degree in East Asian Studies, five years living, working, and studying abroad, and seven years information technology industry experience, I try to bring nontraditional flavors to my role at the CRMDA as I search for that elusive sweet spot between stability and adaptability. My research goals are framed by a desire to understand complex systems science and thus by design I am eager to work expansively across disciplines toward transdisciplinary integration. My current role at the CRMDA is supporting the REDCap (Research Electronic Data Capture) application while I pursue qualifications in quantitative research methods. |
Richard Kinai
KU Dept. of Economics
Phone: 785-864-3353
Advisor: Ronald Caldwell
| I am originally from Kenya. I hold a M.A. in Economics from KU in May 2011 and a B.Ed from Maseno University in 1999. My primary research interests are structural equation modeling, missing data, longitudinal data analysis, & discrimination (Labor Economics). I am currently involved in the SPARK project, a longitudinal study aimed at understanding resilience in children who have been exposed to stressors and life trauma. |
Kyle Lang
KU Dept. of Psychology
Phone: 785-864-3353
Advisor: Todd D. Little
| I am beginning my third year in the Quantitative Psychology Training Program under the supervision of Todd Little. Before entering the program, I received a bachelor’s in psychology with minors in anthropology and quantitative methods from KU. Since beginning graduate training my primary interest has been missing data analysis and the development of new techniques we can employ to address the missing data problem. Incomplete data is one of the most pervasive problems facing the applied researcher today, and I am working to introduce increasingly less biased and more efficient methods of addressing the problem. I am also interested in dynamical systems modeling of intraindividual change, and in the future I would like to combine my interests in missing data and continuous time models to develop strategies for fitting dynamical systems when the observed data are too sparse to estimate the requisite derivatives. |
Zachary Langford
KU Dept. of Psychology
Phone: 785-864-3353
Advisors: David K. Johnson and Todd D. Little
| I conduct research in the Neuropsychology and Brain Aging Laboratory. My primary research involves the identification of changes in cognition and brain function associated with Alzheimer's dementia. I am interested in advanced quantitative methods (growth curve modeling, SEM, nonlinear models), computational models, and brain imaging techniques as applied to the study of Alzheimer's dementia and cognition in general. |
Luke McCune
KU Dept. of Psychology
Phone: 785-864-3353
Advisor: Todd D. Little
| I am a first-year student in the Quantitative Psychology program. I earned a B.A. in Psychology, with minors in Social and Behavioral Science Methodology and Anthropology, from the University of Kansas in 2011. My primary interests in the field relate to structural equation modeling, categorical data analysis, and missing data issues. My substantive research interests outside of quantitative methods focus on the evolutionary function of individual differences, especially personality. |
E. Whitney G. Moore
KU Dept. Health, Sport & Exercise Sciences
Phone: 785-864-3353
Advisor: Dr. Mary D. Fry
| I am a fourth year student in the Health, Sport & Exercise Sciences doctoral program, specializing in Exercise and Sport Psychology. In the Spring of 2011, I completed the Quantitative Minor through the KU Quantitative Psychology Program. I am interested in using Structural Equation Modeling to analyze survey, habit, and physical fitness data. For the future, I am learning Multi-level Structural Equation Modeling to more accurately analyze cross-sectional and longitudinal datasets in the future. Currently, I am the evaluator for a 2010-2013 Carol M. White Physical Education Program Grant I co-authored from the U.S. Department of Education, which was awarded to a Topeka, Kansas school district. |
Sunthud Pornprasertmanit
KU Dept. of Psychology
Personal Website
Phone: 785-864-3353
Advisor: Pascal Deboeck
| I am a second year student in the quantitative psychology program. I am able to give advice in areas such as ANOVA, multiple regression, multivariate statistics, multilevel modeling, and bootstrapping techniques. The statistical programs that I frequently use are SPSS/PASW, R, LISREL, HLM, and MPLUS. I am beginning to learn SAS. I can further advise with some basic programming in R, Visual Basic, and Java. |
Steve Short
KU Dept. of Psychology
Phone: 785-864-3353
Advisor: Todd D. Little
| Before arriving at KU, I received my B.S. in psychology from Christopher Newport University in Newport News, VA, and I recently received my M.A. in quantitative psychology here at KU. Currently, I am a third year quantitative student working under the directions of Todd D. Little, PhD. and Patricia H. Hawley, PhD. My primary research interests include instrument development and validation, and the refinement and application of advanced quantitative methods, such as structural equation modeling (SEM), factor analysis, and longitudinal modeling to a variety of fields in psychology. My main applied research area involves examining changes in university students’ attitudes toward and knowledge of evolution measured by the previously validated Evolutionary Attitudes and Literacy Survey (EALS; Hawley, Short, McCune, Osman, & Little, 2011). My other side interests include research in close relationships, irrational decision making, and skeptical inquiry. |
Mian Wang
KU Dept. of Psychology
Phone: 785-864-3353
Advisor: Carol Woods
| I joined the quantitative psychology program in fall 2011. As an international student from China, I have spent the past 6 years in New York state. I graudated with B.A. in both Public Relations and Philosophy-Psychology from SUNY Oswego, and later received my M.A. degree in general psychology from SUNY New Paltz. Although I have broad interest in SEM and IRT, my primary research interest focuses on differential item functioning and its application in cross-cultural studies. |
Current CRMDA Interns
Kelly Crowe
Dakota Driscoll
Patrick Edmonds
| I am pursuing the B.Sc. in Behavioral Neuroscience with the SBSM Minor and a Minor in Mathematics. My main research interests are statistical applications in Computational Neuroscience and what benefits those statistical inferences can give to various subsets of the field. I intend on applying to graduate programs in statistics and neuroscience which emphasize the development of new computational methodologies. To that end, I have become an intern at the center to gather experience with various modeling techniques and programs that handle large sets of data. |
Caleb Gardner
| I am currently a senior pursuing a BS in Mathematics, a BGS in Psychology and a minor in SBSM. I am interested in social psychology and new statistical methodologies. After I graduate I plan on joining the USAF to be a pilot. |
Fiona Ge
| I am a senior with a major in Psychology and double minors in Quant and Business. My general interests lie in both Social and Clinical Psychology. Specifically, I am interested in how personality serves as a main factor influencing the vulnerability of the development of anxiety disorders. I thoroughly enjoy interning at the Center, and learning different methods of data analysis. |
Catherine Gunsalus
| I am an enthusiastic senior majoring in Political Science with a minor in Social and Behavioral Sciences Methodology. I am interested in public policy and the influence of various cultural practices on national governments. I am also interested in studying and focusing on missing data analysis and structural equation modeling. After graduation, I plan to pursue a graduate degree, continuing my learning in quantitative statistics and research. |
Emily Kroska
| I am a senior from West Des Moines, IA, who is pursuing a BA in Psychology with a minor in Social and Behavioral Sciences Methodology. My research interests are primarily in resilience, trauma, chronic illness, stress, and positive psychological factors that can protect against negative physiological and psychological outcomes. I am currently working with Dr. Sarah Pressman on a project that will examine the potential positive effects of traumatic events as well as volunteer work. After obtaining my undergraduate degree, I hope to enroll in a Clinical Psychology PhD program to pursue a career as a professor of Psychology. |
Brent McPherson
| I'm majoring in Cognitive Psychology, Human Biology, and English. I am also pursuing the Social and Behavioral Sciences Methodology Minor. I am interested in cognitive and biologically based psychology and neurology. I'm planning to attend graduate school to pursue these research interests. |
Patrick Miller
| I'm majoring in Cognitive Psychology, and am pursuing the minor in Social and Behavioral Sciences Methodology. My interests are in methodological research, data analysis, computer science, and high performance computing. Currently, I'm in the beginning stages of an honor's thesis on planned missing data designs, and am continuing work on a project to implement an R interface for reconfigurable computing with field programmable gate arrays started this summer with Dr. Andy Gill. Next year I hope to pursue graduate education in Quantitative Psychology. |
Emily Owens
| I am a senior pursuing a BS in Behavioral Neuroscience and a minor in Social and Behavioral Sciences Methodology. My research interests are primarily in the interaction between executive dysfunction and social/emotional deficits in neurodegenerative disorders. I am currently working with Dr. Doug Denney on a study analyzing processing speed deficits in patients with multiple sclerosis and its effect on executive functions. After obtaining my undergraduate degree, I hope to enroll in a Clinical Psychology PhD program to pursue a career as a professor of Psychology. |
Corbin Quick
| I’m a junior pursuing a B.A. in psychology with minors in business, organizational behavior management, and social and behavioral sciences methodology. I’m interested in organizational development and organizational behavior, as well as psychometrics and structural equation modeling. After graduation, I plan to study industrial-organizational psychology in graduate school. |
Kyle Speakman
| I am a senior at the University of Kansas majoring in Psychology and obtaining a minor in Social and Behavioral Sciences Methodology. I am interested in the area of Industrial and Organizational Psychology and the application of quantitative methods. I am currently working on an Honors Thesis under the direction of Dr. Monica Biernat which relates to these interests. In the future, I plan to pursue graduate training in Industrial and Organizational Psychology |
Briana Sprague
| I am a senior pursuing a B.A. in psychology along with the quantitative minor. My general interests lie in neurological psychology and structural equation modeling. Aside from working in the CRMDA, I am a research assistant in one of Dr. Pressman's labs, where we are studying non-social personal values and relationships to see if they help buffer the effects of stress. |
Marcus Tralla
Kathryn Unruh
| I am a senior from Hays, KS, majoring in Behavioral Neuroscience, with a minor in Social and Behavioral Sciences Methodology. Throughout my undergraduate years, I have worked as an undergraduate research assistant in the Neurocognitive Development of Autism Research program, under the mentorship of Dr. Christa Anderson. My primary research interest is autonomic functioning in children with autism, particularly regarding social interaction and stress. After graduation, I plan to pursue a graduate degree in developmental neuropsychology. |
Kayci Vickers
| I am a senior pursuing the BS in Behavioral Neuroscience with a minor in Social and Behavioral Sciences Methodology. My research interests are mainly in therapy techniques and recovery of cognitive function after trauma, problem solving and learning, and data analysis. After obtaining my undergraduate degree, I plan on applying for a Clinical Psychology PhD program and eventually practicing Clinical Neuropsychology. |
Laura Yuen