I joined the Department of Statistics at the University of South Carolina in 1998 after obtaining my PhD in Statistics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. My research has focused on the models and methods for analyzing educational and psychological tests - psychometrics - with a particular emphasis on the applications and statistical underpinnings of multidimensional item response theory.  
 
I am also deeply involved in statistics education, including the development of new courses and curricula at the undergraduate and graduate level.   I am currently the director of USC's undergraduate programs in Data Analytics and Data Science, an associate director for the National Institute of Statistical Sciences, and an associate editor for Applied Psychological Measurement.  Finally, I am particularly grateful for having had the privilege of directing or co-directing sixteen students as they completed their PhDs.