Assistant or Associate Research Professor

Job Summary

The University of Connecticut School of Social Work’s Innovations Institute invites applications for a full-time (11-month appointment) non-tenure-track assistant or associate research professor position. The UConn School of Social Work seeks highly motivated and productive early to mid-career scholars who are committed to research, social justice, and social work education. We are open to various areas of research and are particularly interested in candidates whose scholarship addresses health equity.

About the Role

The UConn School of Social Work is a national leader in graduate social work education with a tradition of educating and serving diverse communities. We are ranked in the top 11% of schools of social work nationally and number one in Connecticut. The school’s research doctorate is the only public social work Ph.D. program in the region. Our externally funded portfolio exceeds $70 million dollars. Areas of distinction include child welfare and child well-being; behavioral health, trauma, and violence prevention and reduction; international social work and human rights; immigrant and refugee studies; social and health disparities; diversity and cultural competence; and policy analysis, advocacy, and community organizing. The school is also home to the Innovations Institute, a nationally recognized interdisciplinary implementation and translational research center.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the administrative Project Director providing operational leadership, strategic vision, and fiscal oversight for the central evaluation hub located at the UConn SSW Innovations Institute.
• Design, implement, and maintain the systemic organizational framework required to govern, synchronize, and support evaluation workflows.
• Work with content core initiative project leads at Innovations, UConn SSW, and UConn Health to ensure integration and consistency across pillars of work.
• Establish clear operational cadences, standardized communication protocols, and performance benchmarks to monitor data flow and programmatic milestones across multi-site subrecipients.
• Act as the primary high-level institutional liaison between the Innovations Institute evaluation hub and the lead state agency (the Connecticut Department of Social Services).
• Direct and manage a multidisciplinary team within the hub, including research scientists, data analysts, field coordinators, and graduate assistants; handle recruitment, performance evaluation, and team workflow management.
• Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI) duties, methodological quality & data oversight:
• Lead the design, execution, and continuous optimization of mixed-methods evaluation frameworks across the four core initiatives of the Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP): Population Health Outcomes, Workforce, Data and Technology, and Care Transformation and Stability.
• Provide methodological leadership in quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods research, including study design, statistical analyses, qualitative data collection and analysis, data integration, and interpretation of findings.
• Apply implementation science frameworks and methods to evaluate implementation processes, fidelity, adoption, workforce development, sustainability, and outcomes across diverse healthcare settings.
• Champion the data harmonization strategy, developing standardized data-collection pipelines, metadata schemas, and validation mechanisms to aggregate disparate healthcare metrics from multiple distinct EHR platforms and field sites.
• Supervise the Institutional Review Board (IRB) application, submission, and modification processes, ensuring strict human-subjects protection compliance across all 80 evaluation spokes.
• Lead the scientific synthesis of state-wide community listening and public engagement data, ensuring that translational findings reflect the equity-focused intent of the state's healthcare initiatives.

Requirements

• Master's degree in social work or related discipline.
• Experience supporting health equity initiatives.
• Demonstrated or stated commitment to working collaboratively on interdisciplinary research initiatives.
• Demonstrated relationships with State of Connecticut agencies.
• Demonstrated experience in implementation science, dissemination and implementation research, or translational research.
• Experience leading mixed-methods evaluations, including advanced quantitative and qualitative research methods.

Qualifications

• A Ph.D. in social work or a related discipline.
• Early record (Associate) and potential for (Assistant) excellence in leading large-scale hub and spoke evaluation projects, as well as scholarship, external funding, teaching, and mentoring.
• Demonstrated commitment to social work values, including social justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• Demonstrated record (Associate) or strong potential (Assistant) for securing extramural funding and developing an independent program of research.
• Demonstrated expertise in quantitative and qualitative research methods and experience conducting complex program evaluations.
• Residence in Connecticut to easily meet with teams and projects throughout the state.

Benefits

Initial salary commensurate with qualifications, experience, and rank.

Pay

Not specified.

Schedule

Not specified.