Personnel will post the following new position today, for additional information please click on the UW Personnel website at http://www.washington.edu/admin/hr/jobs/apl/index.html  You can find the position by inputting the requisition number. 

Requisition #     76553, RESEARCH SCIENTIST/ENGINEER 3 

POSITION DESCRIPTION 

Research Scientist (100%)
Social Development Research Group
School of Social Work
University of Washington, Seattle, WA

 The Social Development Research Group (SDRG) at the University of Washington is seeking a full time Research Scientist to work on a collaborative effort with other non-university organizations, building on the strengths of the Communities That Care (CTC) prevention operating system. The collaboration seeks to develop an integrated site-based model for improving child- and family-specific outcomes through the implementation and evaluation of evidence-based practices and programs that, in partnership with public systems, will promote community engagement, be informed by local needs and risk and protective factor assessments, and will leverage resources for sustainability.  

The Research Scientist will work in a collegial setting as a member of the development & analysis team on the Evidence2Success project under the advice of the projects' principal investigator, Richard F. Catalano, and the supervision of the project's director, Blair Brooke-Weiss.  SDRG is a multi-disciplinary group of more than 60 researchers and staff members led by Dr. Richard F. Catalano, working to increase understanding of social development and health risk behavior during childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood and to use this knowledge to develop effective prevention programs, policies and service systems.  More information about SDRG is available on the web at www.sdrg.org

 RESPONSIBILITIES:

Evaluation Design

• Serve as the lead SDRG scientist on the evaluation and monitoring workgroup, which is designing the evaluation and monitoring systems for the demonstration phase of the new, integrated model.
• Assist with instrument review and instrument development to determine scientifically valid and cost-effective measures of community and systems' implementation of the model.
• Assist project team in developing appropriate and feasible methodologies to obtain appropriate estimates of the above-referenced measures, and to evaluate change over time.
• Assist with instrument review and instrument development to determine scientifically valid and cost-effective measures of community and systems' implementation of evidence-based programs and policies selected to address communities' specific risk and protective profiles.
• Interact with expert advisory group of leading prevention researchers to obtain input and affirmation of the model's monitoring and evaluation measures and methods.
• Consultation with communities on evaluation plans.

 Data Analysis

• Design and execute multi-level analyses of complex, community-level research questions regarding changes in community & systems prevention service systems,  the sustainability and effect of a community-system prevention system on community- and individual-level adolescent risk and protective factors, substance use, and related youth problem behaviors, and the relationships between community-system prevention system characteristics and epidemiological and longitudinal measures of adolescent drug use and related outcomes.
 • Conduct analyses using advanced statistical analysis techniques, including multilevel modeling, growth curve modeling, survival analysis, structural equation modeling, and multiple imputation analysis.

 Publication and Presentation

• Lead and collaborate on analysis and writing teams in the preparation of peer-reviewed articles.
• Contribute to the conceptualization, development, and preparation of project reports, scholarly publications, presentations, and grant proposals.
• Present project findings to federal, state, and community groups and agencies planning and providing child and family prevention and intervention services, and to prevention scientists.

 REQUIREMENTS:

• Doctorate in social work, sociology, psychology, public health, epidemiology, biostatistics, or related field, or a Master's degree and three years equivalent            experience.
• Strong written and oral communication skills
• Demonstrated ability to write for publication in peer-reviewed, scientific journals.
• Strong analytical background, including experience with advanced longitudinal and epidemiological analysis techniques, such as hierarchical linear modeling, missing data procedures, as well as scale construction, and assessment of reliability and validity of measures.
• Experience with Statistical Software Systems (e.g. SPSS, SAS, Stata,  HLM, or Mplus).
• Experience working with large, complex epidemiological and/or longitudinal datasets.
• Experience working in and contributing to collaborative research teams.
• Experience with service systems research or studies of complex organizations or community change.
• Knowledge of epidemiological and etiological research on youth alcohol and other substance use, youth delinquency, and other child and family outcomes including social, emotional, intellectual and behavioral outcomes for children and youth, and successful transition to adulthood; parenting capacity and skills, parent child connectedness, family resilience and stability, family supportive social networks, caretaker well-being, and family skills at managing crises and handling conflict.
• Strong background in prevention science with thorough understanding of tested, effective prevention programs, policies and practices.
• Demonstrated ability to work independently.
• Ability to meet production deadlines within context of a collaborative team.

 DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Knowledge of data collection methods, prevalence estimation, and risk and protective factors.
• Knowledge of the Communities That Care operating system.
• Knowledge and/or experience of the child welfare and/or juvenile justice systems, including foster care.