Staff Research Associate II

Position Definition:

 The Staff Research Associate II (SRA II) is a part-time, temporary position at 20 hours per week. The length of this assignment is six months and may be renewable at the end of the six months. The SRA II will work with a group of collegial, innovative, and productive health outcomes researchers and clinicians at the University of California, San Francisco and NCIRE who are focused on improving the health of older persons. The ideal candidate will be comfortable working respectfully with older adults and individuals from underserved communities.

The Division of Geriatrics highly values mutual respect, diversity of perspectives and collegiality, and the incumbent is a core member of our team. We are looking for a highly motivated candidate to work in the UCSF Music and Dementia lab on research studies related to music, social well-being and the lived experience of a new dementia diagnosis. Reporting directly to the Program Manager and working closely with the UCSF Principal Investigator (PI), the ideal candidate will perform at a highly independent level in the execution, management, and coordination of research protocols, data collection and operations of several concurrent clinical research studies under the guidelines of research protocols, UCSF/SFVAHCS and regulating agency policies.

SRA II duties may include but will not be limited to supporting research studies in the UCSF Music and Dementia Lab by recruiting, screening, consenting, scheduling, conducting telephone assessments, collecting and analyzing qualitative and quantitative data, conducting observations at public events and in-home participant-observation (anthropology) research, including engagement in music activities.

 

Essential Functions:

Participant Recruitment and Engagement

• Implement recruitment strategies in accordance with the study protocol
• Identify and screen potential participants, assess eligibility based on study-specific criteria, obtain informed consent from those eligible, and accurately track all activities and participant information using the lab’s data management systems
• Schedule participants for study visits, meet with them to administer questionnaires, and perform all other study procedures
• Maintain rapport with participants to support effective communication and retention; respond promptly to diverse needs, coordinate and conduct follow-up interviews (in-home, by phone, or by video), serve a liaison between participants and the research team, and share interim findings and updates with the team

Data Collection and Management

• Assist with data entry and database management, ensuring accuracy, data quality assurance, and adherence to standard operating procedures
• Manage data collection progress and ensure participation deadlines are met in a timely manner
• Assist the PI and Program Manager in reviewing data collection measures and methods

Qualitative Research and Ethnographic Work

• Conduct in-home, graduate-level ethnographic interviews and participant observation using music ethnographic research techniques for a qualitative study on everyday music and well-being among participants with dementia and their caregivers, including critical response evaluation, real-time interview adaptation, fieldnote and analytical memo writing, and transcript coding using qualitative analysis software (e.g., ATLAS.ti). In-home visits and travel are required.
• Implement needs assessments and recommends improvements to home visit coordination, data collection, data management, protocol adherence, and study collaboration. Coordinate geographically distributed home visits occur across Northern California, factoring in considerations such as PI clinical and conference schedules.
• Assist with training other research team members in qualitative data analytical methods such as open coding in ATLAS.ti, axial coding, content analysis, and thematic analysis

Regulatory Compliance and Documentation Support

• Support research protocol functions to ensure Institutional Review Board (IRB) compliance and approval, as well as with external agencies
• Maintain regulatory documents; monitor timelines for data submission; document adverse events and submit to appropriate departments
• Ensure that research publications are compliant with the NIH and other external agencies

Research Support and Publication Assistance

• Assist PIs and biostatisticians with preparation of results to use for presentations at national meetings and for publication in scientific journals (e.g., create tables and figures from data). Co-authoring scientific manuscripts, publication coo