Research Specialist 1

About Texas A&M AgriLife

Texas A&M AgriLife’s Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture (IHA) Healthy Living program, based at the AgriLife Center at Dallas, seeks an experienced Research Specialist I to work in close collaboration and coordination with the Healthy Living team, led by IHA Associate director, Dr. Rebecca Seguin-Fowler, whose work focuses on community-engaged research to address and ameliorate health disparities. The Research Specialist I, under general supervision, works collaboratively with the Healthy Living team to plan, develop, and implement projects, providing technical and operational program and research support.

Texas A&M AgriLife is an organization that supports healthy living for all Texans, through the research of tailored agricultural practices that yield nutritious food sources, outreach programs that train community members on growing their own food, and preservation of natural resources via eco-friendly means, all while following practices that lead to a stronger Texas economy. Overseen by the Office of the Vice Chancellor and Dean for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Texas A&M AgriLife includes the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, Texas A&M AgriLife Research, the College of Agriculture & Life Sciences at Texas A&M University, Texas A&M Forest Service, and Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory.

The Texas A&M AgriLife Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture (IHA) is the world’s first academic institute to bring together precision nutrition, responsive agriculture, and social and behavioral healthy living research to reduce diet-related chronic disease in a way that considers environmental and economic factors. The IHA unites experts from various fields such as agriculture, nutrition, behavioral sciences, exercise physiology, health communications, public health, social sciences, life sciences, engineering, data and computation science, and economics.

Healthy Living implements, evaluates, and disseminates scientific solutions, applicable to all Texans, for improved public health. The Healthy Living team works on a broad portfolio of extramurally funded, community-engaged research and active collaborations with community partners, cooperative extension, and many academic and nonprofit organizations throughout Texas and beyond. We aim to understand the means of building communities around healthy living and about facilitating the delivery of current, accurate, evidence-based programs, guidelines, and information that supports healthier living for Texans. Areas of particular interest to Healthy Living include health promotion, food access, food systems, food and nutrition insecurity, dietary patterns and behaviors, diet/food interventions, program development and evaluation, physical activity behaviors and intervention development, policy system and environmental change, citizen science and community-engaged research, and mHealth technologies and interventions. The IHA’s Healthy Living program is housed at the Texas A&M AgriLife Center at Dallas, which focuses on scientific research, public outreach, and education programs. The Center is a regional hub for Texas A&M AgriLife activity. It is one of 13 AgriLife Centers across the state - each focusing on issues specific to their region. Broad focus areas at the Dallas Center include healthy living, urban agriculture and forestry, and water and land resource management.

Responsibilities:

Primary responsibilities include:  

• Work closely with faculty and the research team to support the implementation of ongoing studies and the development of new ancillary research, including study design, operations, and reporting.  Common research study areas include: maternal-child health and nutrition; obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and/or cardiovascular disease risk reduction interventions for children and adults working with schools, healthcare clinics, and community partners; food system and food insecurity intervention projects; development and evaluation of technology-based interventions (mobile apps).

• Design and assist with managing research project operational procedures, including preparing and coordinating IRB human subjects research protocols.

• Assist with study participant recruitment, data collection, field work, and management of project-related logistics.

• Contribute to the development and refinement of curricula and program materials for chronic disease prevention and health promotion, ensuring accuracy and consistency.

• Assist with preparing grant applications and proposals to funding agencies; develop and edit reports, manuscripts, scientific presentations, manuals, and other dissemination products for various audiences.

• Conduct literature reviews to inform the design, implementation, and evaluation of community-engaged health interventions and/or scientific publications.

• Assist with data cleaning, management, and preliminary statistical analyses across various data types; maintain thorough documentation and prepare reports, tables, and figures for manuscripts, presentations, and grant proposals.

• Assist with data management, data cleaning, documentation, acquisition, and merging, and statistical analyses (qualitative and quantitative) across various data types.

• Provide technical and administrative support to research teams, including facilitating data sharing and ensuring compliance with data integrity and reporting requirements under the direction of senior staff.

• Assist in the development and management of online research tools (e.g., Qualtrics, REDCap, etc.) to support data collection, analysis, and evaluation.

• Perform other duties as assigned.

 Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in related field (e.g., public health, nutrition, exercise science, health communication, health administration, epidemiology, biostatistics, etc.) or equivalent combination of education and experience.

• Four years of related experience.

• Professional demeanor and demonstrated ability to manage and safeguard confidential information with the utmost discretion and professionalism, ensuring sensitive data is handled securely and in compliance with privacy policies.

• Ability to take initiative, work independently, multitask, work cooperatively with others, and manage priorities and tasks as assigned.

• Excellent written and oral communication skills.

• Outstanding planning and organizational skills.

• Knowledge of word processing, spreadsheet, database, and presentation applications, including Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Teams, etc.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in related field (e.g., public health, nutrition, exercise science, health communication, health administration, etc.).

• Fluent in Spanish and English, verbal and written.

• Research background, including experience with community-engaged research and evaluation projects, specifically research management, data collection and/or experience with implementation of clinical research studies.

• Experience coordinating research projects in the following areas: maternal and early childhood nutrition; underserved populations; minority and urban health; food systems; food and nutrition security; community-based health behavior interventions.

• Experience conducting human subjects research and managing Institutional Review Board (IRB) applications.

• Experience with scientific writing, including proposal preparation and writing, developing written reports, and editing manuscripts and documents.

• Experience with statistical modeling and management of research datasets; statistical programming languages (e.g., R, SPSS, Stata, SAS), data visualization tools (e.g., Tableau, Power BI), and database applications.

• Knowledge and understanding of the mission and role of the Land Grant University System, including community-campus partnership and the Extension system.

What You Need to Know

Salary: Compensation for this position is commensurate based on the selected candidate’s qualifications.

Why Work at Texas A&M AgriLife?

When you choose to work for Texas A&M AgriLife, you become part of an organization that is an established leader in agriculture and life sciences with a wide range of capabilities to meet the needs of our statewide, national, and international constituents.

In addition, Texas A&M AgriLife offers a comprehensive benefit package including the following:

• Health, dental, vision, life and long-term disability insurance with Texas A&M AgriLife contributing to employee health and basic life premiums 

• 12-15 days of annual paid holidays  

• Up to eight hours of paid sick leave and at least eight hours of paid vacation each month

• Automatic enrollment in the Teacher Retirement System of Texas  

• Employee Wellness Initiative for Texas A&M AgriLife

Applicant Instructions

Applications received by Texas A&M AgriLife must either have all job application data entered or a resume attached. Failure to provide all job application data or a complete resume could result in an invalid submission and a rejected application. We encourage all applicants to upload a resume or use a LinkedIn profile to prepopulate the online application.