Research Coordinator

Job Description Summary

The University of Maryland Department of Behavioral and Community Health in the School of Public Health has an outstanding opportunity for an independent and well-organized contributor to serve as a RESEARCH COORDINATOR to Dr. Sarah Peitzmeier (Department of Behavioral and Community Health) to help rigorously evaluate novel, impactful interventions for sexual violence prevention as part of our mission to work toward a world without gender-based violence. At the Peitzmeier lab, our mission is to conduct rigorous, community-engaged, high-impact research to end gender-based violence against women and gender minority people.
The primary overarching goal of this position is to help rigorously execute a complex $2 million multisite randomized controlled trial testing the efficacy of a campus sexual assault prevention intervention that we hope will halve the prevalence of campus sexual assault for undergraduate women. The position is funded 90% by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (description here: https://webapps.cihr-irsc.gc.ca/decisions/p/project_details.html?applId=462223&lang=en&wbdisable=true) and 10% on other projects.
This research coordinator position is essential to that mission through research development and implementation. The scope of the work includes managing recruitment and data collection at 2-4 US college campuses in a large multi-site randomized controlled trial testing a sexual assault prevention intervention for undergraduate women. In this role, the research coordinator will manage recruitment and one-year of longitudinal follow-up for at least 600 participants at these sites, manage relationships with campus stakeholders across the sites, hire and manage two research assistants at the University of Maryland, design systems for effective rollout of the trial across sites, and ensure implementation fidelity of protocols across sites.

The Research Coordinator, will be a vital member of a multidisciplinary team that includes approximately 30 staff and collaborators across the trial sites. They will take lead roles on project activities identified by the team. The position’s direct supervisor and PI for the project is Dr. Sarah Peitzmeier. The research coordinator will also work with Co-PI Dr. Charlene Senn (University of Windsor) and trial manager (trials across US and Canada) Dr. Courtney Williston. Applicants from under-represented backgrounds are strongly encouraged to apply.

We seek highly competent, can-do candidates with excellent communication skills who understand the importance of prioritizing the mission and community-based partner collaboration. An intellectually curious, self-motivated learner who take ownership of tasks and effectively executes them to completion, who is intentional when asking for clarification, help, or support as needed will be successful in this position. . . This individual should enjoy giving and receiving open and respectful feedback as a vehicle for the growth and self-development of self and colleagues, and to support the aims of the research. The ideal candidate will be systems-minded with a knack for designing systems that support high-quality data collection, anticipating and responding to potential issues with the trial, and problem-solving research roadblocks. Commitment to integrity and excellence is an essential requirement for the position.

The School of Public Health (SPH) at the University of Maryland College Park was first accredited as a School in 2010. However, beginning in the 1960’s the Department of Health Education in the College of Physical Education, Recreation, and Health was created and by 1999 had an accredited MPH degree program in public health that served as the foundation for launching the School of Public Health a short eight years later. This MPH in Community Health was the model for the public health degrees that would follow with the official launching of the school. Within the department, this includes a B.S. in Community Health, an MPH and a PhD in Behavioral and Community Health.
Our proximity to both our state and national capitals provide unparalleled opportunities for faculty and students to work with key government health agencies, non-profit associations, public policy organizations, and private corporations. Our department uniquely offers its undergraduates a semester-long full-time internships for our students to take advantage of this proximity but also uniquely offers these same style internships internationally.

Minimum Qualifications:

Education:

• Master’s degree or equivalent experience in public health, health services, epidemiology or related area
• Training in program evaluation, randomized controlled trials, and/or longitudinal studies

Experience:

• Experience with program evaluation, randomized controlled trials, and/or longitudinal studies
• Experience managing complex, multi-stakeholder projects
• Prior experience working with marginalized populations related to health issues.

Knowledge, Skills, Abilities:

• Independent time management skills, including ability to prioritize workload
• Excellent ability to work in teams.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Strong interest in women’s health, LGBTQ+ equity, and gender-based violence prevention
• Commitment to racial and reproductive justice.
• Intermediate or higher level skills of MS Office suite

Preferences:

• PhD or work experience in public health, health services, epidemiology or related area
• Experience with RedCap or managing participant databases
• Experience with grant writing or management
• Publication history OR motivation to contribute to paper and grant writing
• Analytic skills and understanding (SAS, Stata, R or equivalent)
• Knowledge of feminist research theories, frameworks, principles, and practices.
• History working in prevention or response to violence against women and girls, e.g. as a victim advocate or peer educator

Additional Job Details

Required Application Materials: CV and Cover Letter

Optional: writing sample

Best Consideration Date: March 17, 2025

Open Until Filled: Yes

The Methodology Center at Purdue (MCAP) is now accepting applications for our NIH-supported Summer Institute on Longitudinal Data Analysis

MCAP’s Summer Institute on Longitudinal Data Analysis Institute will be held July 13th – July 18th, 2025. 

Participants

For more information for interested participants, please visit the page here.

Teaching Assistants

For more information about teaching assistantships, please visit the page here.

About the Summer Institute

Our week-long Summer Institute is designed to meet the needs of 50 participants each year, welcoming individuals from diverse career stages and backgrounds. We aim to support graduate students, post-docs, and faculty, all of whom are eager to enhance their knowledge in longitudinal data analysis.  

This course is ideal for individuals with a foundational understanding of statistics who seek to learn and apply longitudinal methods in their work. We specifically encourage applicants who are not already experts in longitudinal data analysis but who see the potential for these skills to enhance their research or professional contributions. 

Project Summary:

Contemporary large-scale NIH initiatives have led to the emergence of many high-quality publicly available longitudinal datasets that that include complex data of various types, sources, and domains (e.g., biological, social, individual, family, neighborhood, etc.). However, use of these datasets without training can lead to scientific setbacks, including work that is imperfect, misleading, or even incorrect. There is an urgent need for educational programming to train researchers both within and outside of academic careers on the innovative and responsible use of publicly available, large, and complex longitudinal datasets. This R25 grant develops and offers an “Interdisciplinary Summer Institute on the Analysis of Complex, Large-Scale Longitudinal Data”, refining it each year based on evaluation data (aim 1). We will also leverage this program to train graduate students to teach advanced longitudinal methods to participants from multiple disciplines (aim 2). Thus, we will serve two groups: program participants (aim 1), and Purdue graduate student teaching assistants (TAs, aim 2). During an immersive week-long summer institute each year, we will train 50 interdisciplinary participants including students, postdocs and faculty across academic institutions (Y1-Y3), expanding to also include professionals in non-profits, governmental agencies, and industries (Y2, Y3). The course is organized in 10 topics: publicly available longitudinal data sources, introduction to longitudinal data analytic methods, data visualization, missing data, longitudinal categorical data analysis, sampling weights and clustering/ stratification, time varying and time-invariant covariate inclusion, combining multiple data sources, embedded family-based designs, and an intro to sociogenomics—emphasizing cross-cutting themes of data management, visualization and communication, causal inference, measurement and modeling decisions, meaningful effect sizes, and representativeness. Lecture examples and assignments will focus on substance use and associated factors and will use the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development study data, although participants will be encouraged to use whatever dataset is most relevant to their own research interests. The summer institute will also feature TAs and additional faculty instructors circulating the room in each session to support students in need of extra assistance in real-time, as well as review and office hour sessions, experience in interdisciplinary environments, networking, and joint practice opportunities to help establish collaborations. We will also train 6 graduate student TAs each year, who will gain supervised experience in content development, instruction (via review sessions), consulting, course evaluation, and leadership within interdisciplinary environments. We have carefully designed recruitment strategies to train a diverse (e.g., under-represented groups, discipline, and career stage and path) workforce, and a multi-pronged evaluation plan. Our program faculty includes 8 faculty experts in longitudinal data analysis and instruction, representing different fields, genders, and career stages.

For more information about our grant funding for the course, visit the NIH’s description of the course funding here.

If you want more information on the grant, email mcap@purdue.edu

Outline of Topics

A preliminary listing of topics and sessions for the summer institute: