I am an assistant professor of methods and statistics within the Department of Child Development and Education at the University of Amsterdam. My areas of expertise primarily involve structural equation modeling (SEM), multilevel modeling, nonparametric methods, and modern missing data methods. My methodological research interests include psychometrics (namely, testing measurement equivalence / invariance and detecting differential item functioning [DIF] / measurement bias), resampling methods (permutation, bootstrap, Monte Carlo simulation), Bayesian inference, planned missing data designs, and statistical programming. I frequently intermingle these interests; for example, my dissertation research investigated the use of small-variance priors in Bayesian SEM for detecting DIF, and my postdoctoral work involved developing permutation-randomization methods for detecting DIF.
My current research is funded by the NWO's Veni grant, the goal of which is to integrate the social relations model (SRM) with SEM. I am using Bayesian methods to model "round-robin" (or "social network") data from the perspective of generalized latent-variable modeling, enabling many advantages of SEM to be applied to models for network data:
My Veni project will involve developing a new R package for the integrated SRM+SEM. I also maintain two existing R packages (semTools and simsem) and contribute to two other R packages (lavaan and blavaan), which are all devoted to SEM in R.
For the Research Master I teach 2 courses: Methods and Statistics in Education Research and Structural equation modelling in educational research
For the Youth at Risk Master, I teach 1 course: Masterclass in Methods and Statistics