Research Assistant III
University of Denver

Job Info

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Throughout its 75-year history, the University of Denver, Graduate School of Social Work has administered countless externally-funded projects that focus on children and families. These efforts provided the impetus for the establishment of the Butler Institute for Families in 1994. Today, the Butler Institute is nationally recognized for its leadership and collaborative work at the national, state, and local level in evaluation, research, and technical assistance aimed at improving the quality of child-, youth-, and family-serving systems.
We bring together researchers, practitioners, public and private service system experts, and community members to engage in program evaluation and research; examine outcomes; and provide technical assistance and training to program administrators, direct service providers, and community leaders.

Currently, Butler conducts business in four primary content areas: child welfare, early childhood systems, tribal child welfare, and behavioral health. These content areas operate within a Research-to-Practice framework that promotes the use, adoption, adaptation, replication, and scaling of research and evaluation knowledge and the integration of this knowledge in practice. In addition to the benefits offered by the University of Denver (see here for more details: https://www.du.edu/jobs/), Butler offers the opportunity to work with a dedicated group of people committed to using research to support practice improvements. We also offer professional development and job growth opportunities, flexible schedules and the opportunity to telework remotely. Butler stands in solidarity against the systemic oppression of persons of color and American Indian/Alaska Native tribes, communities, and individuals. Butler intentionally partners with family and child serving agencies to create healing, positive systemic change, and daily inclusive actions that reflect racial equity.

Position Summary

This position will support the National Capacity Building Center for Tribes (CBCT) federal grant. The Research Assistant III has 3-5 years of previous professional research and evaluation experience focused on data collection and management or has worked for 2 years as a Research Assistant II. The Research Assistant III has experience with community-based evaluation projects, including work with communities of color, and can conduct basic research and evaluation functions with a racial-equity lens and using culturally-based methodologies such as qualitative, participatory, and story-telling approaches. With supervision, the Research Assistant III is responsible for project management and the planning and organizing of research and evaluation activities including data collection, data entry, data coding and cleaning, basic quantitative and qualitative data management and analysis. The Research Assistant III assists with writing project reports, leads literature reviews, contributes to formal presentations, and assists with grant writing as needed. This position is also responsible for supervision of work studies or interns.

Essential Functions

• Assists in planning and organizing research activities
• With guidance, takes on key project management functions on individual components of complex studies or on small projects
• Coordinates team meetings and research activities in large teams
• Contributes effectively to group tasks such as organizing and implementing project work
• Drafts and submits Institutional Review Board (IRB) applications
• Creates surveys in Qualtrics or similar software
• Assists in the development of participant communications (e.g., invitations, reminders, project description, consent)
• Monitors sub-contracts
• Communicates effectively with community and interdisciplinary collaborators
• Uses project management techniques and software
• Identifies project-wide issues and participates in strategizing solutions
• Under supervision of a Research Associate, coordinates data collection activities and assists in design of surveys or interview/focus group protocols
• Manages data collection and cleaning activities, using a pre-determined protocol
• Coordinates collection, processing, and reporting of data
• Assists in judging validity of data
• Maintains databases
• Manages the coordination of and conducts structured interviews (in-person or by phone) and focus groups
• Administers research incentives; coordinates gift card tracking and distribution
• Enters, cleans, and manages data; this may include manual data entry, tracking response rates, and cleaning data sets prior to analysis
• Prepares qualitative data for analysis, including transcribing or coordinating with transcription services and managing qualitative data files
• Codes qualitative data and identifies themes
• Uses SPSS, Excel, and/or Atlas.ti with a strong understanding of inferential statistics and/or qualitative analysis techniques
• Conducts complex quantitative and qualitative analysis
• Contributes to reports, publications, and dissemination
• Develops and participates in formal presentations, including conference submissions and presentations
• Leads reviews of literature and verifies citations and references list
• Assists with designing, formatting, developing, editing, and revision of reports, handouts, and other presentation materials
• Drafts sections of reports and articles
• Participates in Butler/GSSW Diversity, Equity & Inclusion learning opportunities
• Supervises work studies or interns
• Participates in hiring process such as application review under hiring manager direction
• Assists with writing grant proposals
• Explains processes, helps train, and monitors the work of work studies, interns or temporary employees
• Provides evaluation and research support in other areas upon request, such as generating meeting agendas and minutes, coordinating internal and external meetings, reviewing consultant invoices, and other administrative duties as needed

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including effective email correspondence
• Strong interpersonal skills; ability to communicate effectively with colleagues and with research and evaluation participants, sponsors, and university staff
• Approaches work with diverse communities with respect and humility, as a listener and learner
• Able to listen to, respect, and honor different viewpoints and perspectives
• Eager to learn and grow new research and evaluation skills
• Strong project coordination and task-management skills
• Ability to balance and coordinate tasks and deadlines across multiple projects
• Able to identify problems and initiate solutions
• Able to produce and interpret basic descriptive and inferential statistics (frequencies, means, t-tests, correlation, regression, ANOVAs)
• Independently codes qualitative data and provides initial analysis observations
• Able to discern relevance and/or importance of research findings and present them
• Ability to lead and interpret research literature reviews
• Knowledge of the issues, policies and practices of child-, youth-, and family-serving systems

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in social work, psychology, or a related field
• 1-2 years of professional experience coordinating data collection and management activities
• 3-5 years of work experience; or previous experience for 2 years as a Research Assistant II
• Experience with Microsoft Office Suite, including the ability to create and format tables and charts, PowerPoint slides, and Word documents.
• Experience with intermediate level inferential statistics and/or experience with coding qualitative data
• Experience writing sections of research/evaluation reports and/or articles
• Experience participating in grant writing process

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's Degree
• Over 5 years research experience
• Experience working in Tribal communities
• Experience working in child welfare
• Ability to create and manage databases in SPSS and/or Atlas-ti
• Bilingual in English and Spanish

Working Environment

1. Standard office environment.
2. Unexpected interruptions occur often and stress level is moderate to high.
3. Noise level is quiet to moderate.
4. Telework/Remote work schedule available

Physical Activities

Ability to sit in front of a computer for an extended period of time
Sometimes required to move about the office/campus and transport objects up to 30 lbs.
Occasional travel maybe required for project support

Work Schedule
40-hour work week, typically worked between Monday - Friday, 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. with some flexibility and occasional evenings and weekends as required.

Application Deadline
For best consideration, please submit your application materials by 4:00 p.m. (MST) February 28, 2023.

Special Instructions
Candidates must apply online through jobs.du.edu to be considered. Only applications submitted online will be accepted.

Salary Grade Number:
The salary grade for the position is 8.

Hourly Range:
The hourly range for the position is $23.95-$25.86.

Benefits:
The University of Denver offers excellent benefits, including medical, dental, retirement, paid time off, tuition benefit and ECO pass. The University of Denver is a private institution that empowers students who want to make a difference. Learn more about the University of Denver.

Please include the following documents with your application:
1. Resume
2. Cover Letter

The University of Denver is an equal opportunity employer. The University of Denver prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, age (40 years and over in the employment context), religion, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, genetic information, marital status, veterans status, and any other class of individuals protected from discrimination under federal, state, or local law, regulation, or ordinance in any of the university's educational programs and activities, and in the employment (including application for employment) and admissions (including application for admission) context, as required by Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972; Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, as amended in 2008; Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973; Title VI and VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; the Age Discrimination Act of 1975; the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967; and any other federal, state, and local laws, regulations, or ordinances that prohibit discrimination, harassment, and/or retaliation. For the university's complete Non-Discrimination Statement, please see non-discrimination-statement.

All offers of employment are contingent upon satisfactory completion of a criminal history background check.

Advertised: February 21, 2023
Applications close:

This job has expired.