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Research Assistant

Seeking Two Part-time Research Assistants

The Department of Environmental Health and Engineering seeks two part-time (undergraduate or graduate) Research Assistants to support research in identifying drivers and risk factors affecting occupational psychological distress among Veterinary and Animal Care Workers (VACW) through remote in-depth interviews. The goal of this work is to identify prevalence, unique drivers and risk factors of psychological distress among VACW related to the COVID-19 pandemic and evaluate barriers and facilitators to intervention measures.

Under direct supervision of Faculty PIs, Dr. Meghan Davis and Postdoctoral PI, Dr. Kaitlin B. Waite, the Research Assistant will support the P.O.E Center funded Project by reaching out and recruiting VACW from diverse backgrounds for a remote in-depth interview. Research assistants will recruit participants who have provided contact information while participating in a previous study via email/telephone. Research assistance might also be responsible for recruiting new VACW’s via listservs, social media and other professional organization platforms using self-created marketing materials, approved by project PIs. Research assistants for this position will be responsible for independently managing recruitment deliverables and scheduling of participant interviews.

This is a 2-month ( 8 weeks ) position, as so, preference will be given to those that can stay on for the full work period.

Specific Duties & Responsibilities:

Research Assistants will:

  • Meet regularly (virtually) with Project and Postdoctoral PIs and provide regular recruitment updates to compare with recruitment milestones.
  • Maintain a good working knowledge of recruitment and participant consent protocols.
  • Create Survey marketing materials and manage their distribution via online methods.
  • Record work hours and recruitment progress throughout work period.  
  • Conduct remote in-depth interviews with self-selected participants and enter data collected into an online research database (RedCap).
  • Perform quality control of interview transcription.  
  • Monitor data accrued to identify potential issues with survey completion.
  • Be able to navigate RedCap and correctly interpret and export data.
  • Aid in the creation of data summary reports that will be disseminated to appropriate stakeholders and survey participants.
  • Aid in the development of additional project instruments to further probe survey results.

Minimum Qualifications (Mandatory):

  • Bachelor’s Degree in Public Health or related discipline.
  • Previous experience working within a research setting, preferably with mixed-methods survey or interview work.
  • Additional education may substitute for required experience and additional related experience may substitute for required education, to the extent permitted by the JHU equivalency formula.

Preferred Qualifications:

  • Familiarity with using online survey-based platforms, e.g. RedCap, Qualtrics.
  • Prior experience in engaging and recruiting participants for qualitative work.
  • Prior experience engaging participants from diverse backgrounds.
  • Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.

Special Knowledge, Skills & Abilities:

  • Strong time management skills.
  • Demonstrably strong organizational skills with attention to detail.
  • Be able to adapt to challenging situations during any stage of project work, e.g., recruitment, participant engagement, survey monitoring, etc.
  • Be able to demonstrate cultural competency when interacting with racial and ethnic populations.
  • Be able to perform basic qualitative coding and data analysis to assist in the development of a quantitative instrument with the research team.
  • Navigate Microsoft (e.g. Excel, Outlook, Teams) and OneDrive software, have basic computer and telecommunications (e.g. Zoom meetings) skills.
  • COVID-19 and influenza vaccination as required by Johns Hopkins.
  • Consistent adherence to COVID-19 safety requirements.

Physical Requirements:

This work will be conducted remotely, no physical requirements.

For more information contact Kaitlin Waite: kwaite2@jhu.edu