Wildland Fire and Human Health Postdoctoral Fellow

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How to Apply

To apply, please submit the following in a single PDF file to [email protected] with "WFFI Wildland Fire and Human Health postdoc application" in the subject line:

• Cover letter describing your relevant experience and scholarly interests
• Curriculum vitae
• Relevant publications
• References (to be contacted after an initial interview)

Applications will be considered beginning March 1, 2024, until the position is filled. 

Summary

University of Michigan's School for Environment and Sustainability invites applications for a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship to investigate human health, health equity, and environmental justice aspects of wildland fire. The successful candidate will join the Western Forest and Fire Initiative (WFFI), an interdisciplinary working group of faculty, students, and postdocs who aim to understand and develop strategies for managing forests, fire, and communities in the western US as an integrated social-environmental system (SES). The fellow will undertake a one-year focused research project that culminates in a practical policy recommendation and a published manuscript in a scholarly journal. The project will entail an in-depth investigation of one aspect of the relationship between wildland fire, smoke, and human health that also recognizes larger complex system dynamics. The research question and analytical approach will be identified and developed in collaboration with faculty, practitioners and specialists. 

Start date: Summer or fall 2024
Term: This position will be a one(1) year full-time term limited appointment with the possibility of renewal.
Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan (flexible)

The post-doc will report to and work under the mentorship of Dr. Sue Anne Bell (School of Nursing). Additional mentorship from Dr. Paige Fischer (School for Environment and Sustainability), Dr. Nancy French, Senior Research Scientist, Michigan Tech Research Institute (MTRI), and a team of other faculty members engaged with the WFFI.

Mission Statement

The School for Environment and Sustainability (https://seas.umich.edu/ ) is a collaborative and interdisciplinary school.  Our mission includes contributing to the protection of environmental resources and the achievement of a sustainable society. We accomplish this by generating and sharing knowledge, contributing to policy and engaging managers and stakeholders. The University of Michigan is a top-ranked public university with excellence in research and teaching.  Ann Arbor, home to the University of Michigan, is a town known for arts, culture, parks and restaurants.

SEAS is committed to creating and maintaining an inclusive and equitable environment that respects diverse experiences, promotes generous listening and communications, and discourages and restoratively responds to acts of discrimination, harassment, or injustice. Our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion is deeply rooted in our values for a sustainable and just society.

Who We Are

The Western Forest and Fire Initiative at the University of Michigan

The WFFI is made possible with support from Kathy and Steve Berman. The overarching goal of the WFFI is to improve society's ability to mitigate the risks of large wildfires, exacerbated by climate change, to western forests and communities in forested areas. The WFFI aims to serve as a research hub and a bridging organization, working with practitioners and other researchers in the US West to identify research questions and undertake intensive problem analyses to answer those questions. The WFFI will pursue four main objectives:

Improve scientific understanding of wildfire risk as a social-environmental system, and how to manage forests and communities as such under changing climate conditions.

Support groups of stakeholders in communicating and coordinating their programmatic and policy efforts around forest management, fire risk, community socio-economic development, and climate change. 

Build the capacity of future scholars to work on fire-prone forest and community issues in the West from a complex adaptive systems perspective.

Create an agenda and set of strategies for policy and management changes.

For more information, visit
https://sites.google.com/umich.edu/wffi
https://nursing.umich.edu/faculty-staff/faculty/sue-anne-bell
https://seas.umich.edu/research/faculty/alexandra-paige-fischer
https://www.mtu.edu/mtri/about/staff/research-administrative/french/

Why Work at Michigan?

In addition to a career filled with purpose and opportunity, The University of Michigan offers a comprehensive benefits package to help you stay well, protect yourself and your family and plan for a secure future. Benefits include:

• Generous time off
• A retirement plan that provides two-for-one matching contributions with immediate vesting
• Many choices for comprehensive health insurance
• Life insurance
• Long-term disability coverage
• Flexible spending accounts for healthcare and dependent care expenses

Responsibilities*

• Design and implement a one-year study on a topic relating to human health and wildfire using primary or secondary data
• Write and submit a manuscript to a scholarly journal
• Make a paper presentation at a professional meeting
• Interact with faculty, PhD students, other postdocs and practitioners to design and interpret findings

Required Qualifications*

• Ph.D. in public health, nursing, social work, sociology, geography, psychology, public policy & planning, emergency management, or another related field
• Formal training and research experience with topics such as: environmental risk, natural hazard, or emergency management, response, or recovery; health services; health policy; and protective action or coping behavior
• Formal training with social science or public health research methods such as: qualitative interviewing and data analysis; quantitative survey design and administration and data analysis; secondary data analysis; and spatial data analysis

Additional Information

This position may be eligible for remote or flexible work opportunities at the discretion of the hiring department. Flexible work agreements are reviewed annually and are subject to change dependent on the business needs of the hiring department, throughout the course of employment.

Application Deadline

Job openings are posted for a minimum of seven calendar days.  This job may be removed from posting boards and filled any time after the minimum posting period has ended.

Applications will be reviewed as received throughout the posting period and continue until the position is filled.

U-M EEO/AA Statement

The University of Michigan is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.