About – Piercing Insight

I am an applied statistician, researcher, and program evaluator at Michigan State University, working in the Center for Statistical Training and Consulting (CSTAT). My PhD is in Ecological-Community Psychology but I’ve been working at CSTAT since 2009 and have applied my skills to a wide array of studies spanning many different academic disciplines, research designs, and topic areas.

My methodology skills cover a broad range of quantitative methods, particularly including linear and generalized linear models (plus their mixed-model/multilevel extensions), growth curve modeling, structural equation models and latent variable modeling (including latent class and growth mixture models), measurement modeling, handling & imputing missing data, equivalence testing, and more. I have a strong interest in reproducible research.

Some of my current work focuses on:

A cost-benefit analysis of EFNEP utilizing biomarkers of chronic disease risk.
Examining the effect of cognitive-behavioral therapy interventions on psychological, functional, and disease-related outcomes in youth with functional abdominal pain disorders or with childhood-onset lupus.
Predicting the performance of medical students on licensing examinations.
Examining the effect of a public preschool program on student retention, absenteeism, and standardized test scores for English and math during kindergarten through sixth grade.

Available for Grant & Contract Work

Collaboration and consulting with researchers, organizations, businesses, government agencies, and other academic institutions are all part of my job at CSTAT. If you want to discuss engaging my professional services, either email me directly or visit the CSTAT website, click the Request a Consultation button, then list me as the preferred consultant when filling out our project intake form.

You can see more information at:

--- title: "About" author: - name: Steven J. Pierce orcid: 0000-0002-0679-3019 email: pierces1@msu.edu date-modified: last-modified date-format: YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm:ss z about: template: marquee links: - icon: github text: GitHub href: https://github.com/sjpierce - text: "{{< ai google-scholar >}} Google Scholar" href: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=-ZHBcFEAAAAJ&hl=en - text: "{{< ai orcid >}} ORCID" href: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0679-3019 format: html: toc: true toc-depth: 3 toc-location: left number-sections: true number-depth: 3 code-fold: true code-tools: true code-line-numbers: false embed-resources: true anchor-sections: true link-external-icon: true execute: eval: true echo: fenced output: true warning: true error: true include: true knitr: opts_chunk: message: true --- I am an applied statistician, researcher, and program evaluator at [Michigan State University](https://msu.edu), working in the [Center for Statistical Training and Consulting (CSTAT)](https://cstat.msu.edu). My PhD is in Ecological-Community Psychology but I've been working at CSTAT since 2009 and have applied my skills to a wide array of studies spanning many different academic disciplines, research designs, and topic areas. My methodology skills cover a broad range of quantitative methods, particularly including linear and generalized linear models (plus their mixed-model/multilevel extensions), growth curve modeling, structural equation models and latent variable modeling (including latent class and growth mixture models), measurement modeling, handling & imputing missing data, equivalence testing, and more. I have a strong interest in reproducible research. Some of my current work focuses on: * A cost-benefit analysis of [EFNEP](https://www.nifa.usda.gov/grants/programs/capacity-grants/efnep/expanded-food-nutrition-education-program) utilizing biomarkers of chronic disease risk. * Examining the effect of cognitive-behavioral therapy interventions on psychological, functional, and disease-related outcomes in youth with functional abdominal pain disorders or with childhood-onset lupus. * Predicting the performance of medical students on licensing examinations. * Examining the effect of a public preschool program on student retention, absenteeism, and standardized test scores for English and math during kindergarten through sixth grade. :::{.callout-tip title="Available for Grant & Contract Work"} *Collaboration and consulting with researchers, organizations, businesses,* *government agencies, and other academic institutions are all part of my job at* *CSTAT*. If you want to discuss engaging my professional services, either email me directly or visit the [CSTAT website](https://cstat.msu.edu), click the `Request a Consultation` button, then list me as the preferred consultant when filling out our project intake form. You can see more information at: * [https://cstat.msu.edu/collaborate](https://cstat.msu.edu/collaborate), and * [https://cstat.msu.edu/collaborate/grants-contracts-support](https://cstat.msu.edu/collaborate/grants-contracts-support). :::