CV

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I’m a passionate teacher, methodologist, and researcher with a mission: making statistics and methodology accessible to people who initially think it’s not for them. My strength lies in translating complex subjects into clear and lasting insights.

I was fourteen when I started tutoring maths, so the teaching was in me long before anything official. It got serious during my psychology studies, back in 1997, when I began tutoring fellow students in mathematics, statistics and methodology. Psychology attracts people who are, let’s say, alpha-minded — drawn to human beings, not to formulas — and the technical, quantitative courses were exactly where they got stuck. What I discovered was not just that I could teach this material, but that I wanted to, more than almost anything else: finding the most parsimonious way to explain something hard, so that real, lasting insight forms. Watching students who were terrified at the start slowly begin to like the subject — that turned out to be one of my goals in life. The classes grew so quickly that I eventually left my other job, as a manager in a bar (where, honestly, the social and communication skills transferred to the classroom better than you’d expect), and in 2006 I officially founded my own company: WISI — Wiskunde & Statistiek Inzichtelijk, “Mathematics & Statistics Made Clear”.

The larger aim behind all of it is simple: better research skills and better decisions, in science and in daily life. Most people find research methods a dry matter. I like showing them otherwise — that tools like logic and statistics are things you can actually enjoy using, and that they improve the quality of your work and your thinking, whether you’re writing a thesis or just trying to make sense of the world.

Education

  • 1997–2004 — Leiden University & University of Amsterdam (UvA), doctoraal (pre-master/master-level) in Psychology / Methodology. I completed nearly all coursework and examinations, bar the dissertation and internship — I never took the title, and I’d rather say that plainly than dress it up.
  • 2017 — Completed two online tracks on DataCamp: Data Analyst with R (64 hours) and Data Scientist with R (94 hours, 24 courses).

Work experience

  • 2006–present — Founder of WISI (Wiskunde & Statistiek Inzichtelijk): advice, classes and tutoring in methodology, mathematics, statistics, SPSS and data analysis, and statistical supervision of PhD candidates — from analysis plan to thesis. For example: statistics courses for psychology — Introduction to Research Methods & Statistics, Inferential Statistics, Experimental & Correlational Research, Psychometrics, Multivariate Data Analysis, and Multi-Level Models.
  • 2009–present — Teacher of Statistics at Hogeschool Leiden (Leiden University of Applied Sciences), Applied Psychology, PUM track.
  • 2015–2018 — Leiden University, Law School: statistician, guiding PhD candidates in their research projects.
  • 2018–present — Teacher of Statistics at the GGZ-VS (training programme for Mental-Health Nurse Specialists, Utrecht).
  • 2021–2022 — Math tutoring at Montfort College (Rotterdam) for mavo and havo pupils with severe backlogs.
  • 2022–2023 — Math teacher at Bonaventura College: havo grades 4 and 5, vwo grade 4.

Projects & advisory

For over 25 years now, the core of my work has been organizing and teaching university-level statistics courses — bachelor and master, up to and including multivariate methods — alongside workshops at conferences and advising on scientific research. That advisory work has ranged from doctoral projects at the university to research for public bodies such as the Fire Service (Brandweer) and the Hollands Midden safety region.

Over the years I’ve built close working relationships with Leiden University (psychology and law), the Labyrint study association for psychology students, and Hogeschool Leiden’s applied psychology programme. I teach at every level from the basics up to (research) master level, in classes of up to 75 students as well as one-on-one. One number I’m quietly proud of: of the roughly 500 students who start psychology in Leiden each year, about 100 choose my courses over the regular ones the university runs itself. I also work freelance for Hogeschool INHolland and Webster University in Leiden. At the university of applied sciences, my core role is smoothing the transition from secondary school to higher education — I know what students will need to master later on, so I can build toward it early.

The work has occasionally taken me far from a Dutch classroom. In Bangladesh, I advised on and carried out analyses for research in nature and wildlife development: I organized a methodology course for the researchers of the Wildlife Trust of Bangladesh, and I analyzed tiger data for Adam Barlow — one of the leading tiger experts, based in England — and advised him on his research. Teaching researchers who spend their days tracking tigers how to set up a sound study is, I can report, exactly as wonderful as it sounds.

And through all of it runs one constant: guiding PhD candidates in setting up sound research, so they can carry out their studies and write their theses with confidence in their own methods.

Publications

  • De regressieve ruggengraat (The Regressive Backbone) — a statistics textbook in progress that first lets you feel statistics and only then explains it. Eleven chapters, from difference and mean to regression and logistic regression. In Dutch; read along as it is written.
  • An educational book on univariate statistical analysis, written so that students can fully understand the material without needing a tutor in real life: the Handleiding Statistiek met JASP (in Dutch), here on the site.
  • “What’s mine is yours — but at what price? Dynamic pricing behavior as an indicator of Airbnb host professionalization.” Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management (July 2018).
  • “The DUX-25 after Twenty-Five Years: New Analyses and Reference Data.” (2022)
  • “Fully Remote Intensive Trauma-Focused Treatment for PTSD and Complex PTSD.” (2022)

Contact