Research Assistant

About the role

Dr. Safiyyah Okoye is seeking a research assistant to support projects related to health, physical function, and well-being of low-income older adults and their family caregivers. Dr. Okoye’s academic mission is to conduct high quality, innovative research that generates knowledge and solutions related to improving the health and well-being of socioeconomically disadvantaged older adults in the US (and their families). The ideal candidate should be comfortable with conducting literature reviews, organizing information in Excel spreadsheets and drafting and proof‑reading written documents. The goals of her lab group are to: 1) conduct exploratory research; 2) build an evidence base for the relationship between housing conditions and older adult health and well-being; 3) identify intervention targets; 4) build relationships with community partners in different sectors; 5) launch Dr. Okoye as a successful independent scientist; 6) develop new scientists to make their mark on the world. Dr. Okoye’s lab group values cooperation and mutual support, work that is engaging and interesting, continual learning and growing, and developing and demonstrating our members’ talents and skills. This position is grant‑funded; employment is contingent upon the continued availability of those funds.

Responsibilities

• Secondary data analysis research support – Support scoping review project (document screening and extraction, set up Covidence templates, be knowledgeable about and support team in applying scoping review best practices); assist with organizing and coding of data from scoping review and quantitative data from secondary analyses.
• Human subject research support – Assist with IRB applications, modifications, and renewals; assist with creation of recruitment materials and other study materials; assist with screening of potential participants and scheduling of study visits; collect data from study participants using surveys and semi‑structured interviews; assist with organizing and coding of qualitative data.
• General research support – Contribute to manuscripts and grant applications; conduct informal literature reviews and produce summaries to guide project development; draft and edit sections of manuscripts; generate and edit tables and other data visualizations (e.g., graphs, charts).
• Other administrative duties as needed.

Requirements

• Minimum of a Master's Degree
• Minimum of 1+ years of experience
• Well‑organized, competent and excited to contribute to research on older adult health and social determinants of health
• Expert in reading and writing in English
• Proficiency in conducting basic statistical analysis and using statistical analysis software (SAS, Stata, R or equivalent)
• Intermediate or higher level skills in Microsoft Office Suite

Qualifications

• Experience doing literature reviews
• Experience with Covidence software
• Comfort with reading scientific publications
• Proficiency in quantitative data analysis
• Proficiency in qualitative methods, data collection and analysis – or interest in learning
• Proficiency in data and information visualization

Schedule

Part‑time temporary position (non‑exempt).