Research Specialist 3 - Medical Center

Georgetown University comprises two unique campuses in the nation’s capital. With the Hilltop Campus located in the heart of the historic Georgetown neighborhood, and the Capitol Campus, just minutes from the U.S. Capitol and U.S. Supreme Court, Georgetown University offers rigorous academic programs, a global perspective, and unparalleled opportunities to engage with Washington, D.C. Our community is a close-knit group of remarkable individuals driven by intellectual inquiry, a commitment to social justice, and a shared dedication to making a difference in the world.

Requirements

Job Overview

This is a full-time position for a Research Specialist 3 at the Center for Brain Plasticity and Recovery in the Medical Center at Georgetown University. The Research Specialist 3 will work on our Pediatric Stroke Project, which studies the long-term reorganization of language and cognitive abilities after stroke in children. The project is funded by a large NIH grant with $1M per year budget and includes a team of researchers (faculty, staff, graduate students, and postdocs) working on an assessment of language and cognitive abilities several years after the stroke, using neuropsychological and other behavioral testing and also functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Participants are recruited from a rare patient population who suffered a stroke in infancy or childhood, compared with age-matched controls who have no neurological conditions. Our aim is to determine how long-term outcomes of pediatric stroke change, depending on the age at which the stroke occurred.

The Research Specialist 3 will work with another more senior Research Specialist and with faculty on the project; the Research Specialist 3 will recruit appropriate participants with a recruiting team, arrange and book their families’ visits to the Center, conduct testing and scanning over a 3-day visit, and then analyze the behavioral and brain imaging data. This process includes searching, reading, and assessing medical records of several thousand patients from two major children’s hospitals in order to identify potential participants (done with subsequent review by our neurologists); obtaining past and current medical histories from prospective families; participating in design of our test materials as needed; conducting testing, scanning, and data analyses for behavioral and fMRI data; participating in recruitment from other sites in the Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia; and producing final data analyses and results for publication.

Additional duties include, but are not limited to:

• Reading medical records to find appropriate participants for our studies

• Contacting families to determine their interest in participating

• Booking participant family visits to our Center

• Testing participants over a 3-day visit

• Scoring and analyzing test and imaging data

• Producing data analyses for publication

Work Interactions

Operating with minimal supervision, the Research Specialist 3 reports to a senior faculty member (Dr. Newport) in the Center for Brain Plasticity and Recovery, works alongside a more senior Research Specialist and facilitates the research of other participating faculty members, other staff members, postdocs, and graduate students, and interacts with faculty and clinical coordinators from other research sites (MedStar National Rehabilitation Hospital, Childrens National Medical Center, Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia). CBPR is engaged in a long-term research enterprise investigating the basic science and translational mechanisms of stroke and brain plasticity. As part of this endeavor, the Research Specialist 3 directly impacts multiple research programs; other projects and investigators rely on the data collected, managed, and/or analyzed by the Research Specialist 3. Thus, the position-holder greatly facilitates CBPR’s critical research, the positive impact of which will reach beyond the boundaries of Georgetown University.

Requirements and Qualifications

• Master’s degree in psychology, neuroscience, cognitive science, or a related field (only Bachelor’s degree possible but not preferred), plus 5-7 years related experience, or an equivalent combination of education and experience

• Academic knowledge of and experience with recruiting and testing neuropsychological populations including children and adults; clinical and medical background in stroke or brain injury; and academic and working knowledge of statistical analyses and experimental design.

• Must operate with the highest level of professionalism, demonstrate excellent judgment and problem-solving, be highly organized and reliable, have excellent abilities in time managem