Marquette psychology professor receives Way Klingler Young Scholars Award

Aug. 14, 2019

Dr. Brooke MagnusMILWAUKEE —Dr. Brooke Magnus, assistant professor of psychology in the Klingler College of Arts and Sciences, was recently named one of the Way Klingler Young Scholar Award recipients.

In her brief time at Marquette, Magnus has made valuable contributions to the Psychology Department through her scholarship, teaching and service.

Magnus has sought to make strides in developing item response theory measurement models for survey data and addressing the shortcomings that are often overlooked in clinical research, particularly as related to symptom assessment. She has developed IRT models to accommodate zero inflation, and her dissertation involved developing an IRT model for open-ended frequency data focused on overcoming response bias.

The semester sabbatical that the Way Klingler Young Scholar Award provides will afford Magnus the opportunity to advance both her independent research program as well as her collaborative research agenda. She will also attend a workshop on Bayesian statistical modeling, which will help her address computational challenges that arise when working with multidimensional item response data.

“Since joining the faculty at Marquette, I have helped train multiple graduate students in the application of advanced psychometric methods,” Magnus says. “As a result
of these mentoring experiences, I have several ongoing projects with students.
A semester sabbatical will not only provide me with the time required to see these projects to completion, but it will allow me to explore and develop additional collaborations with our graduate students.”

In addition to the award, Magnus is a co-investigator on a five-year, $3.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study ways to improve patient classification and outcome measurement in traumatic brain injury.

The Way Klingler Young Scholar Awards support promising young scholars in critical stages of their careers with awards up to $32,000. The awards are intended to fund $2,000 in operating costs and to cover 50 percent of salary to afford the recipient a one-semester sabbatical.

About Kevin Conway

Kevin Conway

Kevin is the associate director for university communication in the Office of University Relations. Contact Kevin at (414) 288-4745 or kevin.m.conway@marquette.edu.