Keke Lai

Keke Lai is an Associate Professor of Quantitative Psychology at the University of California, Merced. Previously, she held positions at the University of Houston and Arizona State University. She earned her Ph.D. in Quantitative Psychology from the University of Notre Dame (2012), and a B.A. in English from China (2005).

Her research focuses on advanced statistical methodologies in psychology and education, including structural equation modeling (SEM), robust statistical methods, model evaluation, longitudinal/multilevel data analysis, missing data techniques, and Bayesian statistics. She addresses critical gaps in SEM methodology, such as accurate estimation under missing data, nonnormal distributions, and model misspecification.

Her recent work emphasizes improving confidence intervals for fit indices (e.g., RMSEA, CFI), comparing nonnested models, and developing methods for standardized parameters in misspecified models. These contributions enhance the reliability of statistical analyses in psychological research.

Lai’s publications appear in top journals like Structural Equation Modeling and Psychometrika. She advises graduate students, including X. Zhang. Her website is https://sites.google.com/view/laikeke.