Administrative Assistant, Research

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Job Type:

Employee

Duration in Months (for fixed-term jobs):

6

Job Family:

Research and Program Support

# of Open Positions:

7

Faculty/Service - Department:

Recherche, École des sciences infirmières_ÉT et occasionnels

Campus:

Ottawa, ON

Union Affiliation:

N/A

Date Posted (YYYY/MM/DD):

2025/12/01

Applications must be received BEFORE (YYYY/MM/DD):

2025/12/15

Hours per week:

14

Salary Grade:

Non-Union Grade NR3 - 35 hrs

Salary Range:

$57 015,00 - $71 269,00About the Faculty of Health Sciences About Sciences
Make your mark with the Faculty of Health Sciences Health matters to everyone and we are committed to becoming a nationally and internationally recognized leader in innovative approaches to active living, health promotion, and quality health services.
Our success lies in our students and our people. Join us and every day you will have the opportunity to make a meaningful impact as we grow together and make a great faculty even better.Position Purpose:

The incumbent is responsible to provide general administrative, operational, coordination and technical support for the conduct of research projects.

These research administrative assistant will act as the ACB HIV Peer Equity Navigators (PENs) and as such they will serve as Black Health ambassadors with a particular focus on HIV among Black women. The position is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) under the leadership of Dr Josephine Etowa (Nominated PI) in partnerships with Co-Principal Investigators, Dr Notisha Massaquoi (University of Toronto) and Dr Francisca Omorodion (University of Windsor). This Ontario-wide project involves a team of researchers, service providers, and community members in the three study sites: Ottawa area, Toronto GTA, and Windsor area.  The project will create, implement, and evaluate an African, Caribbean and Black (ACB) community-based peer-led intervention (Peer Equity Navigators, or PENs) to improve access to HIV prevention and care for ACB women in Ontario.  

The Peer Equity Navigators will work under the supervision of the local site co-Director and the Ottawa-based Nominated Principal Applicant, Dr. Etowa to ensure the smooth and efficient operations of data collection and community engagement activities of ACB communities and the agencies serving them.  The PENs will be a vital community resource to ensure the successful implementation of our Critical Health and Racial Literacy Program (CHRLP) and the development of a data management framework for the ACB population.

This is an opportunity for a casual research administrative assistant job for a maximum of 14 hours per week, from February – July months, approximately 1-3 events per week (varying each week). This contract will be paid hourly at 31.33$.

Why join our PEER EQUITY NAVIGATOR (PEN) initiative?

As part of the CADWHO-HIV Project team, you will help to improve health within ACB communities by increasing HIV prevention and care awareness and promoting action. As a PEN, you'll receive training in topics such as critical health and racial literacy peer education methods.

Your responsibilities will include:

1. Your own training: Successfully complete 4 weeks of paid training including an in-class component and a community practicum within a service organization. Review and be familiar with the training materials and engage in self-learning exercises.

2. Communication and liaison activities:

• Act as a central contact person for investigators, subjects, research staff, and health care professionals

• Promote and facilitate ccommunity events using various social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp, word-of-mouth, and at ACB-based community organizations and social activities/events.

• Educate the ACB community about HIV and other related health issues.

3. Interacting with study subjects

• Assist with recruitment of potential study participants by promoting CCL projects through community organizations and peer networks.

• Receive and process information and/or data in accordance with defined study protocols. For example, reviews and be familiar with the research project materials (especially the consent form, survey and protocol) before beginning data collection.

4. Administrative duties

• Coordinate and arrange meetings, teleconferences and other research related events such as organizing, designing, and conducting educational events about HIV and Health for ACB community members over a period of 6 months (approximately one to three educational event per week).

• Participate in bi-weekly debriefing sessions with the PENs Community Coordinator and Project team to debrief on progress and challenges with training, community education events, survey recruitment, and support fellow PENs.

What you will bring:

• High School Diploma: completion of postsecondary training in office and administration preferred.

• Minimum of two years office administration experience, preferably in a research environment.

• Flexible availability, including evenings and weekends for community events.

• Demonstrate keen interest in contributing to better research and health programs for ACB communities.

• Excellent communication skills, including the ability to clearly relay information about health in a confident, friendly, and outgoing manner.

• Comfortable facilitating discussions to groups and able to actively listen with empathy and remain non-judgmental.

•  Strong organizational, problem solving, and time management skills.

• Strong computer proficiency using MS Office applications (Word, Access, Excel, PowerPoint), email, and electronic scheduling software.

• Demonstrates respect and openness toward diverse perspectives, backgrounds, and lifestyles.

• Fluency in English (e.g., reading, comprehension, writing) is essential. Fluency in French would be an asset.

Additional Assets:

• An understanding of the social determinants of health among ACB people in Canada, especially the impact of structural anti-Black racism.

• Past experience related to the job qualifications. 

• Please list other languages you fluently speak or Proficiency in other languages

Documents required to apply:

Please submit a short resume (1-2 pages) with a brief cover letter outlining why you would like to work as an ACB HIV PEN. More specific questions can be sent via email to:  

We thank all who are interested in applying for the position. Please note that only selected candidates will be contacted.

Key Competencies at uOttawa:
Here are the required competencies for all or our employees at uOttawa: 

Planning: Organize in time a series of actions or events in order to realize an objective or a project. Plan and organize own work and priorities in regular daily activities.
Initiative: Demonstrate creativity and initiative to suggest improvements and encourage positive results. Is proactive and self-starting. Show availability and willingness to go above and beyond whenever it is possible.
Client Service Orientation: Help or serve others to meet their needs. This implies anticipating and identifying the needs of internal and external clients and finding solutions on how to meet them.
Teamwork and Cooperation: Cooperate and work well with other members of the team to reach common goal(s). Accept and give constructive feedback. Able to adjust own behaviour to reach the goals of the team.

The University of Ottawa embraces diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We are passionate about our people and committed to employment equity. We foster a culture of respect, teamwork and inclusion, where collaboration, innovation, and creativity fuel our quest for research and teaching excellence. While all qualified persons are invited to apply, we welcome applications from qualified Indigenous persons, racialized persons, persons with disabilities, women and LGBTQIA2S+ persons. The University is committed to creating and maintaining an accessible, barrier-free work environment. The University is also committed to working with applicants with disabilities requesting accommodation during the recruitment, assessment and selection processes. Applicants with disabilities may contact to communicate the accommodation need. All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadians and permanent residents will be given priority.

Note: if this is a union position: The hiring process will be governed by the current collective agreement related to the union affiliation noted above; you can click here to find out more.

If this is a front-line position with responsibilities to interact with students, selected candidates must be rated at the Low Advanced proficiency level or higher for both oral comprehension and reading comprehension in their second official language. The rating is determined by a proficiency test designed by the Official Languages and Bilingualism Institute.

Prior to May 1, 2022, the University required all students, faculty, staff, and visitors (including contractors) to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 as defined in Policy 129 – Covid-19 Vaccination. This policy was suspended effective May 1, 2022 but may be reinstated at any point in the future depending on public health guidelines and the recommendations of experts.

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