Dr. Nedim Yel
Nedim has a PhD in 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.
At DASS he leads the statistical work on client projects and the firm's free tools, including the power calculators, the APA results formatters and the AI-evaluation model-comparison calculator.
Areas of expertise
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.
- 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
Health research
- “A Novel Approach to Manage Hypercholesterolemia: Veterans Affairs Lipid Optimization Reimagined Quality Improvement Program” — JACC: Advances, 2026
Plus five conference abstracts on VALOR-QI outcomes in Circulation (2024, 2026) and the European Heart Journal (2025).
Measurement, psychometrics and methods
- “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
- “Assessing teachers' intervention-related expectations and self-efficacy: An examination of the factor structure of the Implementation Beliefs Assessment” — School Psychology, 2025
- “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
- “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
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, 2025
Full list on Google Scholar and ORCID.
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