Manager, Community Partnered Research and Engagement, Owerko Centre

Description

The Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute (ACHRI) in the Cumming School of Medicine invites applications for a Manager, Community Partnered Research and Engagement within the Owerko Centre. This Full-time, Fixed Term position is for approximately 12 months, with the possibility of extension.

The Manager will report to the Director of the Owerko Centre. The Manager will be responsible for developing and leading a program that enables the Owerko Centre and community partners (including agencies, schools, pediatricans and clinical care) to collaboratively advance research with a focus on neurodevelopment and child mental health. In addition to building this program, the Manager will contribute to research spanning data generation, knowledge synthesis and knowledge mobilization.

The position will liaise with multiple research teams and community partners, international stakeholders, and funding agencies. In support of this program, the Manager will oversee graduate research assistants and project casual augmentation staff. Travel may be required to disseminate the work of the Owerko Centre to international stakeholders; however, the bulk of the engagement will occur in Calgary or via online media.

Summary of Key Responsibilities (job functions include but are not limited to):

RESEARCH

• Work with community partners to develop new research questions.
• Critically review the quality of research evidence when generating new resources based on those research findings.
• Contribute as a technical expert and scientific contributor. This includes:
  • Using comprehensive knowledge of principles, concepts, and practices within neurodevelopmental research to partner in complex research projects, including contributions to systematic literature reviews, community-based and partner-engaged research projects, and design projects using longitudinal data sets.
  • Interpreting and summarizing published research findings to form the basis of knowledge mobilization plans, products, tools, and activities to inform practice, program development, and policy in the fields of child development, child mental health, language, education, and literacy.
  • Conducting and supporting data analysis on longitudinal data sets.
• Secure research funding for this program, taking direction from the Owerko Centre Director to draft grant applications to support cognitive development research sustainability. This includes preparing proposals, detailed review and editing of draft internal/external grant applications, assisting in writing as required and providing assistance to co-investigators and collaborators.

STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT

• Monitor and evaluate emerging issues in child mental health, cognitive development, child literacy, and language development to identify and assess opportunities and policy developments applicable to the Owerko mandate; recommend strategies and initiatives which address knowledge exchange gaps between research and practice.
• Develops and maintains relationships with community organizations to promote project buy-in.
• Contribute to planning, design, development, and implementation of a strategy for promoting study engagement and buy-in among diverse stakeholders in collaboration with Senior Scientists and Principal Investigators.
• Strategically prioritize opportunities for community-engaged research and develop a corresponding work plan to meet those priorities.
• Research best practices in patient engagement and knowledge translation to identify successful strategies that could be used to support the present research.
• Clearly define and communicate project performance expectations to staff and colleagues.
• Lead staff in project design through changes in plans, scope, and approach and allocate resources to maximize the project's productivity.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

• Implement a Child Development Hub to incorporate new resources, remove outdated content, refresh as needed, and maintain best practices for knowledge dissemination.
• Participate in learning opportunities, identify and foster stakeholder engagement and positive working relationships with colleagues and partners, and network to advance knowledge and competency of effective knowledge mobilization practices in cognitive development, child mental health, language, and literacy.
• Present study information in a compelling, non-technical way to community stakeholders to promote interest in partnering with the research team.
• Utilize Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion principles to help the research team identify how to recruit and disseminate knowledge to a diverse sample of children and families.

KNOWLEDGE MOBILIZATION

• Work with the research team and key stakeholders to identify how study findings can be used by local agencies to improve child services.
• Use a high degree of scientific judgment to adapt and create standard methods to apply cutting-edge knowledge mobilization techniques by applying breadth of knowledge and prior work experience.
• In consultation with the Owerko senior leadership, develop, execute, and evaluate knowledge mobilization plans using a diverse range of methods to create and distribute knowledge mobilization products, such as toolkits, learning modules, lay and research publications, and policy briefs, using feedback from knowledge users.
• Contributes to a broader strategy for understanding how to translate findings into recommendations for national and international audiences in collaboration with Senior Scientists and Principal Investigators.

COMMUNICATIONS

• Determine the content and presentation of reports, manuals, newsletters, ads, articles and other publications, correspondence, and communication materials, often collaborating across faculties and departments to present complex concepts and ideas.
• Publish and present technical papers and communiques to external audiences; participate in creating and authoring significant internal publications.
• Select the most appropriate target media for a given communication piece. Evaluate reports or documents and propose recommended actions.
• Prepares written materials for non-technical audiences, including one-pagers, infographics, and policy briefs.
• Assist in the decision-making process regarding the graphic design of resources created.
• Make decisions on content presentation to ensure a respectful and fair representation of the community engaged.
• Prepares and presents findings in an oral format for community stakeholders.
• Develops social media presence for the research team and leverages this platform to recruit participants and disseminate findings.

Qualifications / Requirements:

• PhD degree in psychology or related field, training in quantitative methods, and/or program evaluation
• Minimum of 5 years of experience in psychology research is required.
• Minimum of 3 years of experience on projects (research, program evaluation) that included a quantitative component.
• Content expertise in child development, language, and literacy.
• Experience administrating quantitative data.
• Training in and/or experience with qualitative software to support data administration and analysis.
• Record of publications in peer-reviewed academic journals.
• Experience preparing and applying various information dissemination strategies for research/evaluation projects (briefing notes, policy reports, business cases, grey reports, etc.)
• Demonstrated ability to interpret and identify key results from research and other sources, and to summarize research findings in plain language (presentations and writing).
• Strong organizational, analytical, interpretive, and problem-solving skills to collect, process, and summarize data.
• Proficiency in using a variety of statistical software, on-line literature search engines, and bibliographic software. Ability to adapt to changing technology and implement new developments to increase effectiveness.
• Highly developed critical reading, writing, and editing skills for diverse communications (i.e., reports, manuals, newsletters, ads, articles and other publications, correspondence, and communication materials, different medium (print and digital, including web, e-communication and social media).
• Ability to provide support to other members of the team and related units or teams.
• Completion of tri-council ethics training (e.g., TCPS 2.0).
• Completion of equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) training/modules/course.
• Knowledge of research ethics requirements and processes (for human studies).
  

Application Deadline: May 6, 2024

We would like to thank all applicants in advance for submitting their resumes. Please note, only those candidates chosen to continue on through the selection process will be contacted.

This position is classified in the Research Career Band, Level 4 of the Management and Professional Staff Career Framework.

For a listing of all management and staff opportunities at the University of Calgary, view our Management and Staff Careers website.

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