Assistant Researcher
Position Overview
The Center for the Advancement of Research on Eating Behaviors (CARE) Laboratory has 1-2 openings for an Assistant Researcher to help coordinate clinical trials and basic science research in eating disorders. The Assistant Researcher will work closely with Dr. Kelsie Forbush, PI, and a team of local and international researchers. Duties will include conducting literature searches, writing IRB submissions and amendments, overseeing participant recruitment and enrollment, participant testing using structured clinical interviews, coordinating team meetings and laboratory schedules, preliminary basic data analyses, data cleaning, and data management using RedCap software. Other responsibilities will include supervising undergraduate research assistants and paid staff, assisting with extramural and intramural grant submissions, maintaining lab records and processes, and assisting with publications. The Assistant Researcher will assist the PI in upholding high ethical standards, regulatory compliance, and confidentiality of sensitive data and open-science reporting practices.
The Assistant Researcher will assist with ongoing longitudinal, epidemiological, and clinical trials research being conducted in our laboratory. Ongoing studies include:
Finally, our center has close relationships with numerous local and national eating-disorder treatment centers, including Children’s Mercy – Kansas City and Eating Recovery Center, making this an ideal position for someone who is interested in graduate or medical school!
This position will be hybrid to start with and transition to fully on-site. This position will require relocation to Lawrence, Kansas. Lawrence is a vibrant community that offers numerous sporting, cultural, shopping, and educational opportunities. We are also located 25 to 45-minutes from metropolitan Kansas City, which is the 23rd largest city in the USA, with a wide range of professional sports, arts, music, food, cultural, and shopping options.
The Assistant Researcher will assist with ongoing longitudinal, epidemiological, and clinical trials research being conducted in our laboratory. Ongoing studies include:
- A guided self-help Cognitive Behavioral Therapy intervention of college students with a bulimic-spectrum eating disorder.
- Department of Defense funded research that is designed to develop a new screening tool for eating disorders and related mental health conditions in two nationally representative samples of veterans.
- NIH-funded clinical trial designed to develop a mobile-health app that uses machine learning to predict likelihood of relapse in adolesents who are recovering from anorexia nervosa.
- Pilot fMRI studies of adolesents with anorexia nervosa.
Finally, our center has close relationships with numerous local and national eating-disorder treatment centers, including Children’s Mercy – Kansas City and Eating Recovery Center, making this an ideal position for someone who is interested in graduate or medical school!
This position will be hybrid to start with and transition to fully on-site. This position will require relocation to Lawrence, Kansas. Lawrence is a vibrant community that offers numerous sporting, cultural, shopping, and educational opportunities. We are also located 25 to 45-minutes from metropolitan Kansas City, which is the 23rd largest city in the USA, with a wide range of professional sports, arts, music, food, cultural, and shopping options.
Job Description
50% Supervision, Project Management, and Administrative Support:
- Provide oversight of undergraduate and paid research assistance to ensure timely completion of tasks and training on research tasks
- Develop laboratory schedules for undergraduate students
- Interview potential undergraduate research assistants
- Run weekly and monthly reports to update PI and team regarding recruitment and enrollment targets
- Create meeting agendas, take notes, and follow-up on Team member task completion
- Train undergraduate students on data entry, lab policies, and procedures
- Develop and maintain IRB protocols, submit IRB amendments, and reports of new information, when applicable
- Coordinate team meetings and scheduling of data safety monitoring board
- Assist with preparation of grants, progress reports, and publications
- Ensure recruitment targets are met
- Ensure team deadlines are met and keep track of project metrics using Asana
- Conduct semi-structured clinical interviews to generate mental-health diagnoses
- Screen participants for inclusion/exclusion criteria using diagnostic measures
- Administer tests of neurocognition and self-report measures of psychopathology
- Assist with data collection for various research protocols
- Perform simple statistical analyses, as needed, SPSS
- Oversee recruitment and enrollment flow through our protocols using RedCap
- Assist with the preparation of reports for the data safety monitoring board
- Data entry
- Ensure data are saved and kept secure
Position Requirements
- This position will be hybrid to start with and transition to fully on-site. This position will require relocation to Lawrence, Kansas.
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in psychology, public health, epidemiology, educational psychology, social work, counseling, or related field by the start date.
- Experience as a research assistant or technician in a research laboratory as evidenced by application materials.
Preferred Qualifications
- Master's degree in psychology, public health, epidemiology, educational psychology, social work, counseling or related field.
- Demonstrated ability to work to a deadline.
- Coursework or prior training in clinical psychology or behavioral health research setting.
- Experience in laboratory management or administration.
- Experience recruiting, screening, and testing participants in research studies.
- Proficient computer knowledge to interface with a variety of database, statistical, and imaging task and processing software, such as SPSS, SAS, R, Qualtrics, RedCap, Linux, AFNI.
Additional Candidate Instructions
A complete application consists of:
1. Resume/CV
2. Cover letter explaining how you meet the required qualifications
3. Three references from academic mentors
1. Resume/CV
2. Cover letter explaining how you meet the required qualifications
3. Three references from academic mentors
- Review of applications will begin on April 10th, 2023 and will continue until a qualified applicant pool has been identified.
Contact Information to Applicants
Dr. Kelsie Forbush
kforbush@ku.edu
kforbush@ku.edu
Advertised Salary Range
$36,000 or commensurate with experience
Work Schedule
40 hours/week
Application Review Begins
Monday April 10, 2023
Anticipated Start Date
Thursday June 1, 2023