Research Instructor (F71620), School of Medicine/Division of Epidemiology - Virginia Commonwealth University

Mission or Goal of Unit:

The mission of the Division of Epidemiology is to provide outstanding epidemiology and public health training, conduct innovative research, and engage in impactful service.
The Division integrates research, education and public health service programs. We offer a fully accredited Master’s of Public Health degree and dual programs with medicine (MD), social work (MSW), and pharmacy (PharmD). Our close ties to the Virginia Department of Health allow us to provide opportunities for our students to immerse in experiential learning with our public health partners. Our doctoral training program in epidemiology cultivates public health scientists equipped to use state-of-the-art research methods for the purpose of advancing fundamental knowledge of issues central to the improvement of population health. The epidemiology program is also available to medical students through the School of Medicine's MD/PhD program.

Working collaboratively with the highly productive, multidisciplinary centers and institutes at VCU, our faculty conducts innovative research aimed at understanding the interface between behavior and physiology to integrate social, psychological and biological approaches to understanding health and illness over the life course. The Division offers a strong collegial atmosphere where faculty, students, and postdoctoral fellows work together to promote and share in the creation of knowledge related to the improvement of population health.

The Department of Family Medicine and Population Health, Division of Epidemiology has been training public health students for twenty years, resulting in over 500 graduates! The division is research-intensive with close ties to public health practitioners in state and local department of health agencies. Philosophically, we believe in fully immersing students into their chosen career path as quickly as possible in the training experience. Linking didactics immediately to context is extremely important for adult learners.
The research programs in the division are diverse and reflect the diversity of our faculty. Our philosophy in research is grounded in team science. We believe discovery occurs more quickly when teams representing different disciplines work together to solve public health problems. Cross-fertilization of ideas beyond disciplinary boundaries leads to more rapid discoveries and translation of science to practice and policy to promote population health.

Chief Purpose of this position:

Applicants are sought for a full-time Instructor level position in the Department of Family Medicine and Population Health, Division of Epidemiology.  The chief purpose of this position is to conduct research in identifying the factors related to high resistance to substance use. Factors increasing resistance may have the highest impact in maintaining or leading to health, as opposed to disease. This project uses novel methods developed for this study, and developmental data – from childhood to adulthood – already available and newly obtained in this project in a sample of twins.  The incumbent will provide additional analytic and research support to the Chair and the Department’s research faculty in areas related to primary care and population health research. The incumbent will also be provided with mentoring and support to develop their own investigator-initiated research that capitalizes on the strengths within the department. Applicants will have strong technical skills and profession knowledge in the scope of epidemiologic, substance use, and/or genetic epidemiology research.

Position Responsibilities: 

This interprofessional research position is designed as a transition to research independence program for early career researchers interested in genetically-informed as well as population health research. Training will be available to develop skills in qualitative research, team science research approaches, genetic analyses, and transitioning to careers inside and outside academia.

The incumbent will collaborate with several multidisciplinary teams, supporting data collection and analysis of twins. The research will focus on analysis of a longitudinal sample of twins.  An additional portion of the project will include data collection and analysis of qualitative data. The incumbent will be responsible for supporting data management needs related to project analyses, leading a variety of data analysis projects, conference presentation of results, grant development, manuscript publication in peer-reviewed journals as well as non-traditional venues, and developing results dissemination materials to graduate-level students and the public related to study results. 

Required Qualifications: 

-Doctoral degree (PhD in a health-related discipline PhD such as Epidemiology, Public Health; or PhD with a health-related focus such as health administration, health psychology, translational research, or biostatistics)

-Prior experience with the analysis of population-based substance use data

-Prior experience with structural equation modeling

-Excellent data analysis experience in SAS, R, SPSS, STATA, or equivalent statistical software

-Excellent oral, written, and interpersonal communication skills

-Demonstrated experience working in and fostering a diverse faculty, staff, and student environment or commitment to do so as a faculty member at VCU

Preferred Qualifications: 

-Experiential learning through lived experiences and/or professional service that informs worldviews and/or perspectives about substance use resistance, to include race, age, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion, and disability

-Experience in conducting qualitative data analysis projects

-Experience with the analysis of longitudinal data

-Experience with the analysis of twin data

Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) School of Medicine is a premier academic medical center located in the heart of Richmond. Accounting for almost half of VCU’s sponsored research, the School of Medicine is internationally recognized for patient care and education. All full-time university staff are eligible for our generous benefits package that includes choices for health, vision, and dental coverage, life-insurance, short and long-term disability coverage, retirement planning, tax-deferred annuity and cash match programs, flexible spending accounts, tuition benefits, significant paid-time off, 12 paid holidays, and more. Explore our benefits further here: https://hr.vcu.edu/current-employees/benefits/university-and-academic-professional-benefits/

The School of Medicine continuously strives for our workplace and learning environment to reflect the demographic and social milieu of the communities we serve. All qualified applicants are encouraged to apply.

This position is open until filled.

This is a restricted position with no set end date; continued employment is dependent upon project need, availability of funding, and performance.

Please note that if you are employed as a university employee working in any of the health system's facilities, you will need to follow VCU Health System policies, which will include but will not be limited to, vaccination requirements.


Position Type: Teaching & Research Faculty

Full time equivalent: 100%

ORP Eligible: Yes

Tenure: Ineligible

Rank: Instructor

Months: 12

Department: Division of Epidemiology, 1595

Salary: $60,000-$70,000

Contact Information:
Contact Name: Sara Vorlop
Contact Email: Sara.Vorlop@vcuhealth.org