Sarah Depaoli

Sarah Depaoli is Associate Professor of Quantitative Psychology at the University of California, Merced and Visiting Distinguished Professor at the Methods Center of the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen. She specializes in Bayesian statistics, structural equation modeling, and mixture modeling with applications in psychological and health-related research.

• PhD in Quantitative Methods (minor in Mathematical Statistics), University of Wisconsin (2010)
• MA in Quantitative Psychology, California State University-Sacramento (2007)
• BA in Psychology, California State University-Sacramento (2003)

Her research focuses on:

• Bayesian estimation of latent variable and growth models
• Prior distribution selection in small-sample research
• Measurement invariance testing across populations
• Development of guidelines for model transparency (WAMBS-checklist)
• Psychological and health outcome modeling with Bayesian methods

The most recent articles demonstrate expertise in:

• Bayesian longitudinal analysis (CushingQoL interpretation differences)
• Latent class enumeration in growth mixture models
• ML vs Bayesian estimation comparisons
• Health psychological outcomes (PTSD, Quality of Life)
• Cross-cultural measurement invariance
• Statistical software implementation (JAGS, Mplus)

Scientific awards include:

• 2015 Association for Psychological Science Rising Star
• 2013 Hellman Fellow
• 2011 APA Division 5 Distinguished Dissertation
• Multiple travel awards from Psychometric Society and SMEP

She has advised numerous graduate students and served as Associate Editor for Psychological Methods, Multivariate Behavioral Research, and Journal of Royal Statistical Society, Series A.