Research Assistant, Pediatrics

Position: Research Assistant       

Department: Pediatrics Research (CHEER)

Schedule: 40 hours per week, Remote

POSITION SUMMARY:

The Center for Health Equity, Education, and Research (CHEER) at Boston Medical Center is a world-class center for maternal child health advocacy, training and research. Its mission is to bring about health equity by collaborating with community-based partners and providing technical assistance, training, evaluation, and inspiration. CHEER focuses on underserved populations, with a particular emphasis on maternal child health and nutrition.

The Research Assistant will participate in and oversee the administrative aspects of CHEER’s programs/grants and interact with program participants, investigators, students RAs, and other research staff.  Duties include: assisting with program recruitment, scheduling meetings, administering questionnaires, creating and filing program documents, entering and updating data, maintaining databases, running reports, and performing other administrative tasks. The RA maintains contact with the participating sites to insure complete and timely data collection, maintains sites’ files, assists with documenting financial and budgetary needs of the grant, and supporting the research team with the preparation of data and other reports.

JOB RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Responsible for the administrative aspects of CHEER’s programs, including: managing program records and handling communication needs of the program.

• Provides assistance in the development of reports, presentations, and data analysis.

• Creates and edits multimedia content, including short video clips, training videos, and other digital resources to support education, outreach, and program communications.

• Assists in the development, scheduling, and publication of social media content, including managing the organization's social media content calendar, creating graphics and copy, and posting content across platforms

• Assists in data collection and provides feedback on progress.

• Schedules meetings with program participants; conducts reminder communications.

• Reviews the data collection forms for programs; checks work of junior staff performing data entry to ensure timely and accurate entry.  Provides technical guidance to junior staff.

• Conducts literature searches. Assists Investigators with manuscript and presentation preparation and research.

• Participates in staff meetings/initiatives including appropriate quality improvement and education activities, or if unable to attend non-mandatory activities, accepts responsibility to review meeting minutes and becomes knowledgeable of issues discussed.

• Performs office-related duties such as answering phones, managing email accounts, picking up and delivering mail, ordering and distributing office supplies, handling faxes, scanning, filing, photocopying, collating materials, maintaining the update of policy manuals, etc.

The above statements in this job description are intended to depict the general nature and level of work assigned to the employee(s) in this job.  The above is not intended to represent an exhaustive list of accountable duties and responsibilities required

JOB REQUIREMENTS

EDUCATION:

• Bachelor’s degree is required by time of hire. Major in a field related to the research highly preferred.

EXPERIENCE:

• Minimum of one to two years of experience in the public health field or an equivalent combination of education and experience is preferred.

KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS:

• Experience with recruiting subjects, with an understanding of the ethical and technical conduct of research.

• Excellent English communication skills (oral and written).

• Bilingual or multi-lingual skills in Spanish is preferred.

• Cultural sensitivity and comfort with a wide range of social, racial and ethnic populations

• Organizational ability to perform multiple tasks efficiently and to prioritize duties.

• Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications including Word, Excel, and Access and PowerPoint. Experience with statistical analysis tools a plus. Ability to perform basic data management tasks (coding, data entry, data cleaning, retrieval).

• Ability to perform basic data analysis and reporting (in words, numbers and graphics). 

• Experience creating and managing social media content, including developing content calendars, writing engaging copy, and publishing content across multiple