Dr. Nedim Yel
Nedim has a PhD specializing in Measurement, Statistics, and Methodological Studies (psychometrics) and more than 15 years of experience in NSF-, IES- and foundation-funded research, from randomized trials across 22 colleges to school accountability, access to justice and health-system studies. He is a Harvard Strategic Data Fellow, and today also works as a Senior Data Scientist building AI products.
His methods work centers on measurement and multilevel data: validating scales, modeling growth in nested and longitudinal designs, and planning sample sizes that hold up to a methods reviewer. His doctoral research at Arizona State University examined sample sizes in longitudinal three-level models. In health research, he has worked on multi-site programs built on electronic health records, including the VA and American Heart Association's VALOR-QI program, published in JACC: Advances.
Since 2019, Nedim has led DASS's statistical consulting work, helping research teams plan studies, analyze data and understand their findings. He also leads the firm's free tools, including the power calculators, the APA results formatters and the AI-evaluation model-comparison calculator.
Areas of expertise
Teaching and guiding research teams
Graduate statistics teaching
Nedim taught full time at the University of Massachusetts Boston from 2019 to 2022 and returned to teach individual courses in 2024, 2025 and 2026. His teaching has included graduate research methods and evaluation, intermediate statistics and advanced statistics. That experience informs his work with research teams: explaining why a method fits, walking through assumptions and helping collaborators interpret findings and limitations.
Technical communication
He holds a master's degree in Technical Communication and Rhetoric from Texas Tech University and has taught technical writing and communication at Texas Tech and Arizona State University. This background supports his approach to reports, figures and results discussions: making the reasoning accessible to the audience while keeping assumptions and uncertainty explicit.
Working with research teams
Nedim's collaboration with research teams includes several years of statistical and methodological work at Indiana University. As a Research Scientist at the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy from 2016 to 2018, he supported evaluations of the Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching Program and New Jersey charter schools, including fiscal analysis. As Senior Statistician in the Mind and Identity in Context Lab from 2017 to 2022, he provided statistical, methodological and data support for research on bar-exam performance, women's experiences in STEM and school-discipline interventions.
Since founding DASS in 2019, he has continued that work through individual projects and ongoing consulting relationships. He works with collaborators on study planning, data management, analysis and interpretation, helping teams translate substantive questions into an analysis plan, address the structure and limitations of their data, and explain what their findings support. His experience with multilevel and longitudinal data is particularly relevant to studies that follow participants over time or involve students, schools, clinics or other nested settings.
Roles, partnerships and grants
- Peer reviewer, Statistics and Modeling panel, Institute of Education Sciences (FY2021–FY2024, reappointed for FY2025–FY2028), reviewing federal education research grant applications.
- Senior Statistician/Researcher, Rutgers Center for Effective School Practices (CESP), where DASS is a partner organization.
- Consulting Statistician, Equity Accelerator, which helps colleges and workplaces build more equitable learning and working environments.
- Statistical analysis consultant (key personnel), Smooth Sailing: an IES-funded randomized controlled trial ($3.6M, 2023–2028) of a professional-development program that helps general-education teachers build strong relationships with their autistic students.
- Strategic Data Project Fellow (Harvard Center for Education Policy Research) and Senior Data Scientist, California Department of Education: geocoded nearly four million student addresses in R and linked them to federal broadband maps to show where students lacked home internet during the pandemic, an analysis that Harvard’s Strategic Data Project credits with informing California’s response to the digital divide. The same effort included the California Digital Divide Innovation Challenge, a $1 million global competition for ways to expand broadband access.
- Co-Principal Investigator, Project PRIME2 (Institute of Education Sciences, $3.7M), with Melissa Collier-Meek and Lisa Sanetti: a federal trial helping educators plan, implement and maintain evidence-based interventions (grant announcement). Its randomized-trial and single-case study plans are preregistered on the Open Science Framework.
- Evaluator, first year, Project Teachers Learning with Counselors (TLC), University of Massachusetts Boston: prepared the evaluation and analysis plan for an interdisciplinary educator-preparation initiative funded by a $1.2M project award from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs. His involvement ended after the first year when he left the university (grant announcement).
- Longitudinal analysis and data management, National Center on Assessment and Accountability for Special Education (Institute of Education Sciences, $11.7M), including technical reports comparing school-performance models across four state accountability systems (center publications).
Selected publications
Journal-issue years are shown where available. Earlier online publication dates and accepted manuscripts are identified separately.
Health research
- “A Novel Approach to Manage Hypercholesterolemia: Veterans Affairs Lipid Optimization Reimagined Quality Improvement Program” — JACC: Advances, 2026
- “The Veterans Affairs Lipid Optimization Reimagined – Quality Improvement Program: Rationale and methods” — Journal of Biomedical Research & Environmental Sciences, 2025
Conference presentations and abstracts also report VALOR-QI outcomes.
Measurement, psychometrics and methods
- “Cultural adaptation and validation of a Spanish-Language measure of therapist competency working with transgender clients in Colombia” — International Journal of Transgender Health, 2026 journal issue; first published online January 4, 2025
- “Do LGBTQ+-Affirming Training and Clinical Guidelines Matter? Cultural Adaptation and Validation of a Psychologist LGBTQ+ Competency Scale in Colombia” — Journal of Counseling Psychology, accepted for publication October 5, 2026.
Horne, Chaparro, Yel, Briseño and Cheng. Nedim's contributions: lead contributions in methodology and formal analysis; shared software responsibility. - “A standardized generalized dimensionality discrepancy measure and a standardized model-based covariance for dimensionality assessment for multidimensional models” — Journal of Educational Measurement, 2015
- “Assessing model similarity in structural equation modeling” — Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 2016
- “A comparison of methods for evaluating schools with respect to growth of students in subpopulations in three-level models” — School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 2023 journal issue; first published online May 10, 2022
- “Assessing teachers' intervention-related expectations and self-efficacy: An examination of the factor structure of the Implementation Beliefs Assessment” — School Psychology, 2025 journal issue; first published online April 11, 2024
- “Assessing students' opportunity to learn the intended curriculum using an online teacher log: Initial validity evidence” — Educational Assessment, 2014
- “Exploratory data analysis” — Handbook of Psychology (2nd ed.), 2012
Evaluation, law and policy
- “Teachers and School Leaders in the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond: Patterns in Educators’ Experiences in Connecticut Schools, Part 1” — Center for Connecticut Education Research Collaboration, final report, June 2026; coauthor, listed as Consultant.
Nedim contributed statewide administrative-data analysis and interpretation to the broader study of educator certification, shortages and mobility. Part 1 presents survey and interview findings; the administrative-data analyses are designated for a companion Part 2 report. - “Accessing Justice with Zoom: Experiences and Outcomes in Online Civil Courts” — Research report, 2023; co-authored with Victor D. Quintanilla, Kurt Hugenberg and Ryan Hutchings
- “Underestimating the unrepresented: Cognitive biases disadvantage pro se litigants in family law cases” — Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 2020
- “The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on first-generation women test-takers: Magnifying adversities, stress, and consequences for bar exam performance” — Journal of Social Issues, 2023 journal issue; first published online October 11, 2022
Psychology and wellbeing
- “The stench of bathroom bills and anti-transgender legislation: Anxiety and depression among transgender, nonbinary, and cisgender LGBQ people during a state referendum” — Journal of Counseling Psychology, 2022
- “The effects of career adaptability on intended academic persistence: The mediating role of academic satisfaction” — Journal of Vocational Behavior, 2018
- “Suicide-related outcomes in a cross-sectional, national sample of transgender, nonbinary, and gender-expansive Black, Indigenous, and other people of color” — Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, advance online publication June 26, 2025
Explore publications on Google Scholar, ORCID and PubMed.
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