Research Assistants, Department of Psychology
About the Department
The Department of Psychology at the University of Denver is research-oriented, valuing a collaborative and integrative approach to psychological science that fosters intellectual curiosity and innovation and invests in people in a supportive and inclusive environment. Our mission is to advance psychological science by generating and sharing new knowledge through collaborative scholarship, educating and mentoring student scholars, and contributing to the public good. The College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and the Psychology department are strongly committed to building an inclusive educational environment, which is in full accord with the value that DU places on its commitments to inclusion. Candidates must demonstrate ability to integrate content and issues relating to, and to work effectively with, various populations.
Position Summary
We are looking for two full-time Research Assistants. Each Research Assistant will assist with two grant-funded research project investigating the development and treatment of anxiety in youth. This research is timely given that there is increasing recognition about the importance of mental health in youth, and that anxiety is the most common mental health problem across development, and most typically onsets during the pediatric period. One clinical trial focuses on comparing two cognitive interventions – one computerized targeting interpretation bias in youth anxiety, and the other a group behavior therapy study for youth with anxiety and co-occurring learning difficulties.
Research Assistants will work very closely with other project staff and participants and therefore must have excellent interpersonal and organizational skills. The projects are conducted in the Brave Lab (https://liberalarts.du.edu/psychology/brave) at the University of Denver. Given the number of projects and participants involved, Research Assistants must have excellent organizational and management skills. In addition, the research assistant will have the opportunity to substantially contribute to these research projects, including over time developing research questions to answer; the depth and breadth of this involvement will be in accordance with the employee's long-term career goals and skills.
Essential Functions
Under the direct supervision of the Principal Investigator (Michelle Rozenman), research assistants will assist with these primary responsibilities:
- Project management: of two research projects: one clinical trial comparing two cognitive interventions with anxious youth, and another that will test a new group intervention for children with anxiety and learning disabilities. The research assistants will assist with coordinating data collection including identifying eligible participants, developing workflows to communicate with eligible participants and tracking participation over time, longitudinal follow-up of participants, prioritizing and managing multiple tasks across the two projects, and management of IRB protocols and clinical trials protocols.
- Working with human subjects: that include youth and consenting caregivers: data collection of cognitive, psychophysiological, and mental health data (tasks and questionnaires) from children and caregivers both in-person and remotely; recruitment, screening, scheduling of participant appointments via phone, email, text communications as preferred by the family; behavioral management and support during research visits; interacting with families to support research goals and successful research visits. A successful research assistant will demonstrate the requisite interpersonal and data collection skills to ultimately be trained as a co-facilitator of the group-based intervention for youth with anxiety and learning disorders, and may even learn over time to conduct semi-structured diagnostic interviews and/or serve as a cognitive therapy facilitator in the cognitive intervention trial.
- Team Management: Engage collaboratively with and coordinate a team of graduate and undergraduate students working on the research project including communicating and coordinating study visits, establishing workflows beginning with recruitment and ending with completion of study visits; participation as a member of the research team; various meetings with study team members and investigators; assisting with interviewing of new team members.
- Administration: Preparation of subject data, assisting with data entry, data back-up, photocopies, filing, etc.
- Other: A small number of other duties may also be assigned that are relevant to the lab's work including, but not limited to, tasks such as literature searches, helping data preparation for NIH reports and manuscript submissions, attending recruitment or other community events with the PI, etc.
Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills
- Strong problem-solving ability
- Strong interpersonal skills
- Strong ability to manage personnel teams
- Strong organizational skills related to delegating project tasks, scheduling, and managing multiple research priorities
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor's or Master's degree in Psychology or related field
- Excellent written and verbal communication and interpersonal skills including strong note-taking skills during meetings to successfully complete tasks
- Detailed-approach to tasks and ability to follow very specific research protocols
- Strong organization and detail-oriented administrative skills to include scheduling, data/file management, word processing (MS Word), spreadsheets (Excel), copying, phone skills and data entry, following protocols
- Critical thinking skills along with the ability to identify, discuss, and solve problems and issues that may arise
- English proficiency
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience coordinating research projects
- Experience in research with youth
- Strong interpersonal skills for in-person and telephone interactions with staff and prospective participants/parents
- Prior experience in research or clinical settings with youth with neurodevelopmental and/or mental health symptoms
- Prior or current participation in a research lab where duties involved active engagement in the research process with human subjects (e.g., running experiments with participants, recruiting participants for a study, and/or managing a dataset)
- Master's degree in Counseling, Education, Psychology or related field
- Interest in staying with the project for two years. While a two year commitment is not required, this position requires a significant amount of training and a two year commitment (grant funding dependent) is preferred.
Working Environment
Standard office environment. Noise level is quiet to moderate.
Physical Activities
- Ability to work in front of a computer for an extended period.
- Occasionally required to move about the office/campus with the capability of transporting objects up to 20 lbs.
Work Schedule
The schedule requires daytime hours, including some late afternoon and early evening availability to accommodate participant visits after school, as well as occasional weekend availability to accommodate participant study visits. The schedule is 40 hours per week. This is a full-time, in-person position.
Pay
The hourly range for this position is $22.04-$25.00. The University of Denver has provided a compensation range that represents its good faith estimate of what the University may pay for the position at the time of posting. The University may ultimately pay more or less than the posted compensation range. The salary offered to the selected candidate will be determined based on factors such as the qualifications of the selected candidate, departmental budget availability, internal salary equity considerations, and available market information, but not based on a candidate's sex or any other protected status.
Benefits
The University of Denver offers excellent benefits, including medical, dental, retirement, paid time off, tuition benefit and ECO pass.
Application Deadline
For consideration, please submit your application materials by 4:00pm (MST), August 10, 2026.
Application Instructions
Candidates must apply online through jobs.du.edu to be considered. Please do not contact Dr. Rozenman directly, as she will not reply. Only applications submitted online through the DU Jobs portal will be accepted.
Please include the following documents with your application:
- Cover letter (one page)
- Resume or curriculum vitae
- Contact information for two references: Please provide two references who can speak to the applicant's research and organization skills. References will be checked.