Brenna Gomer

Psychology

Assistant Professor - Quantitative Psychology


Brenna Gomer

Contact Information

Office Location: EDUC 487
Email: brenna.gomer@usu.edu
Additional Information:

Biography

Perhaps I could be considered a methodologist who is fascinated by “statistical nightmares” – issues with non-normally distributed data, missing values, or, worse yet, the nonexistence of statistical methods to address a scientist’s question of interest in the presence of such non-ideal data. My interest is both in obtaining a precise understanding of what happens in these nightmare scenarios as well as developing statistical methodology to address them. Very often, these go hand in hand. My research expertise includes 1) missing data analysis, 2) structural equation modeling, and 3) robust methods. My projects in these areas have also incorporated growth curve modeling, regression, statistical computing, and Bayesian statistics. My most recently published work has examined characteristics of nonignorable or Missing Not At Random (MNAR) missingness and introduced two MNAR subtypes, called focused and diffuse MNAR. Currently, I am developing a modified sensitivity analysis procedure that quantifies missing-data mechanism uncertainty via hypothesis tests and effect size measures. In the future, I plan to continue developing statistical methodology for data with missing values or other nightmarish scenarios. Substantively, I am interested in applying quantitative methods to clinical, developmental, and cultural research. I received my PhD in psychology (quantitative area) from the University of Notre Dame -- where I also obtained an MS in Applied and Computational Mathematics and Statistics (ACMS) – and earned my BA in Psychology and Statistics from the University of California, Berkeley. My non-academic interests include board games, tea parties, and gothic literature. I am interested in accepting students to my lab who are passionate about quantitative methods and have a strong background in statistics.