I am an Assistant Professor in the Dr. Bing Zhang Department of Statistics at the University of Kentucky. Before joining the faculty at UK, I was a postdoc with Tian Zheng in the Dept. of Statistics at Columbia University in the City of New York and I receieved my PhD in Statistics at The Ohio State University, where I was advised by Kate Calder. I grew up in Cleveland Heights, Ohio and did my undergrad at Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI in Computational Math.
I am interested in the geometry of network data, (posterior) predictive model checking, and collaborating with experts outside of statistics to study complex social and behavioral phenomena. Recent work also includes Bayesian hierarchical modeling, latent variable approaches, and applications in behavioral health and substanse use research. My research strengthens our intuition for dealing with complex data and models, and I enjoy creating impactful visualizations.
Recent activity
- July 2025. Our paper on Bayesian ARD models is now available on ArXiv:
- June 2025. I attended WNAR in beautiful Whistler, BC, Canada where I presented some work on Bayesian latent growth curve models for EMA data
- June 2025. I participated in a fruitful collaborative research workshop at UBC Okanagan funded by PIMS/BIRS Team Up! Pathways to inclusive research
- June 2025. Jillian R. Silva-Jones (PhD Candidate, Psychology) has been awarded support from UK’s CCTS TL-1 Predoctoral Training Program. Congrats Jillian!
- Dec. 2024. My advisee, Jieyun Wang, passed her oral qualifying exam. Congrats Jieyun!
- Dec. 2024. Our SUPRA pilot grant was selected for funding! Looking forward to using latent space network analysis to learn more from Kentucky’s PDMP data!
- Nov. 2024. Our paper on opioid shipments leading up to the largest HIV outbreak in the US is now avaiable at Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety: