RESEARCH COORDINATOR

As a UW employee, you have a unique opportunity to change lives on our campuses, in our state and around the world. UW employees offer their boundless energy, creative problem-solving skills and dedication to build stronger minds and a healthier world. 

UW faculty and staff also enjoy outstanding benefits, professional growth opportunities and unique resources in an environment noted for diversity, intellectual excitement, artistic pursuits and natural beauty. 

The Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences within the UW School of Medicine is the third largest clinical department with over 300 full-time faculty members, over 400 courtesy/affiliate faculty members, 132 trainees and over 300 staff with an annual budget of over $110m. Department faculty provide clinical services in the University of Washington School of Medicine, University of Washington Medical Center-Montlake and Northwest and Harborview Medical Center. Faculty members also serve at Seattle Children’s Hospital, the Veteran’s Administration Puget Sound Healthcare System, and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center; which comprise 5 hospitals, 14 primary care locations, and several outpatient sites; in addition to telepsychiatry consultations to more than 150 clinics in Washington and beyond. As the only academic psychiatry department serving the five state WWAMI region (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, Idaho), the Department’s highly competitive residency training program is largely responsible for developing the mental health workforce in the Pacific Northwest and is the largest program in the United States. We offer 26 graduate medical education programs, including the Psychiatry Residency and Clinical Psychology Intern/Resident programs, 24 subspecialty clinical fellowships (ACGME & Non-ACGME), and required and elective medical student clerkships for 276 students. In addition, our education program runs 6 workforce training programs for mental health practitioners across Washington State and the Pacific Northwest Region.

The Department’s robust research portfolio reached $55 million in grant and contract awards in fiscal year 2023 for projects ranging from clinical neurosciences to treatment development to health policy and population health. The Department is recognized as an international leader in developing, testing, and implementing Collaborative Care, an integrated care model increasingly seen as a solution for population-based mental health care. Other areas of excellence include Addictions, Autism, High Risk Youth, Neurosciences, and Trauma, and the Department is developing innovative new programs in Technology and Mental Health, Global Mental Health, Maternal and Child Mental Health, and Targeted Intervention Development.

The Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences is recruiting for a Research Coordinator.

POSITION PURPOSE
The Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences is recruiting a Research Coordinator. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has sub-contracted with the National Network of Public Health Institutes (NNPHI) and the University of Washington to develop and implement four projects to support American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN) public health system capacity and infrastructure development. They are: (1) The Tribal Public Health Capacity and Infrastructure Project that is made up of the Strengthening Public Health Resource & Knowledge Exchange (SPHRKE) program and Gathering Grounds, Indigenous Community of Practices. SPHRKE convenes tribal grantees for technical assistance and Gathering Grounds, is an online community for peer-peer sharing of public health knowledge and resources; (2) The Indigenous Social Determinants of Health Project to identify and describe determinants of health within Indigenous communities that can be applied in public health practice to support tribal sovereignty and health equity; (3) The Stopping Elderly Accidents, Deaths, and Injuries (STEADI) study, which is conducting a national survey of best practices for elders fall prevention within Indian Health Services (I.H.S.), tribal, and urban outpatient facilities; (4) The Opioid Overdose Prevention in Tribal Communities Project to develop a training and technical assistance plan for improving tribal health data systems infrastructure, coordination of care, and treatment services. In addition, UW has separate contracts with American Indian (AI) nations and Indigenous communities to engages in research, develop and provide training and technical assistance in the areas of tribal public health governance, performance, capacity building, and accreditation. UW provides ongoing leadership for project and training/technical assistance design, implementation, and dissemination, in close collaboration with NNPHI, CDC, and contracting AI nations. The Research Coordinator will support the leads on these projects in implementing research and programatic activities, facilitation of trainings/ technical assistance sessions, and coordinatoin of communication among the AI nations, CDC, NNPHI and UW. The Research Coordinator will also assist in producing study products & project deliverables -literature reviews, data collection tools, analysis, manuscripts, reports, and technical assistance manuals. Seven Directions (7D) are working on Tribal public health and Opioid overdose prevention projects funded by the National Network for Public health INstitutes through a CDC cooperative agreement. These projects consist in conducting research and translation for implementation within tribal and urban Indian health organizations. Additionally, Seven Directions is developing a qualitative research proposal to expand upon formative data. The Research Coordinator’s role will be to engage partners for coordination of activities related to the proejcts. These include engaging in qualitative data collection, analysis, and interpretation with assistance from the project’s lead Research Scientist.

Position Complexities:
The nationwide scope of these projects includes 550+ federally recognized AIAN nations, 12 I.H.S. regions, over 650 I.H.S and tribal health facilities, and multiple tribal organizations and entities, which represent wide range of geographical, social, political, and cultural environments (e.g., urban vs. rural, northwest vs. plains vs. southwest, compacted and contracted tribal health systems). This will require humility, willingness to learn, understanding, and flexibility. The frequent in-person, telephone, and e-mail contacts with AIAN communities require extraordinary tact and cultural sensitivity.

Position Dimensions and Impact to the University:
The position bridges a wide-gap—real and perceived— among tribal public health system stakeholders (e.g., tribal nations, tribal/urban communities, academia, non-profit organizations, and government agencies) with respect to health and health - related planning, evaluation, and research. Seven Directions are positioned to continue to build trusting relationships among tribal governments, AIAN tribal and urban communities, and academia/ non-tribal government and entities for mutual benefit of community health and well-being.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
While this position will be involved with a variety of tasks, the RC will work closely with the Tribal Opioid Overdose Prevention and Public Health Project leads, research scientist, and staff on the following primary duties: