I am a statistician with a background in Psychology and Philosophy, currently working on my PhD in the departments of Methodology & Statistics and Interdisciplinary Social Science at Utrecht University. In my dissertation, I investigate issues with model and data characteristics that seriously affect the interpretation of model-fit measures in Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). I pay special attention to longitudinal SEM, a variant of SEM that is often used in developmental sciences and research on youth. I apply my methodological findings to data and problems known to applied researchers.

I hold a master’s degree in Educational Psychology from Masaryk University in Brno, Czechia, and a research master’s degree in Psychological Methods and Philosophy from the University of Amsterdam. To finance my graduate studies in the Netherlands, I was awarded the prestigious Bakala Foundation Scholarship Grant. In the year between finishing my research master’s and starting my incredible PhD journey at Utrecht University, I lectured in methodological and statistical courses at Masaryk University in Brno. I also assisted with implementing evidence-based educational policies at the Czech Ministry for Education.

Besides SEM and its applications, I am interested in network analysis, interpretation of psychometric models and communication of statistics to applied researchers and laypeople.