PostDoctoral Fellow – Public Health Focus

The Postdoctoral Fellow will support work performed via a National Institute for Health P50 funded research award titled, “Community Team Lifestyle Immersion Program for Chronic Disease Prevention and Control”. This position affords the candidate experience in conducting health behavior modification intervention and translational research under PI mentorship.

The Postdoctoral Fellow will work directly with our MDHA community partners and assist clinicians to identify, recruit and consent eligible patients for the research study, schedule study visits at various time intervals, instrument the study survey in hard copy or REDCap, urine and blood specimen collection, processing and storage, educate participants, record keeping, and data management/analysis.

The Post-Doctoral Fellow will understudy management and maintenance of IRB protocols, adhere to research standard operating procedures (SOP), be fully engaged with data collection, data entry, data management, data analysis, presentation of research in the form of scientific poster, and manuscript. The Postdoctoral Fellow will prepare monthly reports and present same at the TLIP monthly seminar and will be expected to develop a hypertension related pilot research project to be submitted for Career Development award such as a KO1.

Daily Operations                                                                                                

• Complete all required research training in-person & Identify eligible study participants and consent them.  
• Complete the study questionnaire by interview onto hard copy surveys or REDCap, including physical body-fat distribution measurements (Weight, height, skin-fold thickness, waist & hip circumference).
• Collect urine and blood samples from all participants, handle, process, label accurately, and store the Biosamples appropriately.
• Train study participants in the following areas of blood pressure self-management, nutrition, and physical fitness by education presentation and practical demonstration.
• Assist investigators to complete follow-up of participants at 1-month, 3-months, and 6-months post intervention, and complete their follow-up surveys, measurements, and biosample collection.
• Complete research data entry into the study database, manage the database, and analyze research sata.
• Develop and submit a scientific poster and a pilot grant proposal or an NIH Career Development Grant proposal.

Required Skills

• Must have the ability to express self clearly and concisely, both orally and in writing, and to establish and maintain effective rapport and effective working relations with participants and research team members.
• Must have the ability to operate personal computer, other office equipment, and a variety of audio-visual equipment, and proficiency using Microsoft Work, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft, PowerPoint, etc.
• Should have proficiency in biosample collection and handling, including phlebotomy. 
• Must be familiar with entering and managing research study data via SPSS database or electronic database such as REDCap, with willingness to learn same within 2 weeks.
• Must have basic physical fitness and nutrition recommendation knowledge, and the ability to demonstrate physical fitness and healthy plate activities.
• Must express readiness to learn research skills required to successfully develop a scientific poster and a pilot project for the purpose of submitting a career development grant.

Required Education and Experience

• Doctoral Degree in Public Health related specialty, Nutrition, Health Education, Health administration and Planning, social work, behavioral science from an accredited college or university with at least one-year related work experience required. Additional related Certification preferred.
• Prior experience conducting human subjects research.
• Prior experience in recruitment and retention of racial/ethnic minorities into research studies.
• Evidence of a submitted thesis and/or publication in peer reviewed journal.