Research Associate II

The Staff Research Associate II (SRA II) will serve as an integral member of the Music and Dementia Lab within the Division of Geriatrics at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), working with a group of collegial, innovative, and productive health outcomes researchers and clinicians dedicated to improving the health of older persons, in partnership with NCIRE and the SFVAMC.

The Division of Geriatrics highly values mutual respect, diversity of perspectives and collegiality, and the incumbent will be a core member of our team working on research studies related to music, well-being, and dementia.

Reporting directly to the Program Manager and working closely with the UCSF Principal Investigator (PI), the incumbent will perform at a highly independent level in the execution, management, and coordination of research protocols, data collection and operations of several concurrent clinical research studies in strict compliance with UCSF, SFVAMC, and regulatory agency policies.

The incumbent will perform data collection and analysis for a mixed-methods in-home observational study examining everyday music engagement, well-being, and the lived experience of a new dementia diagnosis. The primary responsibility of this position is to conduct in-home participant-observation (anthropology) research, including scheduling and coordinating of in-home data collection, getting to and from participants’ homes, observation of and engagement in participants’ usual music activities.

Additional responsibilities include recruitment, screening, consenting, telephone assessments, and observational research at public events and from online resources. The incumbent will work directly with older adults and underserved communities and must demonstrate strong interpersonal communication skills and the ability to conduct research independently in home and community settings.

• Lead in-home ethnographic research: Conduct in-home ethnographic interviews and anthropological participant observation with dyads, adapting interviews based on participant responses and emerging research questions. Critically evaluate participant responses and emerging findings to tailor interviews, refine data collection, and pursue study research questions. Apply music ethnographic research techniques to examine everyday music engagement and well-being among participants with dementia and their caregivers.
  
  Travel to/from participant homes throughout Northern California is required.
• Coordinate study operations: Schedule study visits, conduct home visits across Northern California, accounting for geographic considerations and the schedules of other team members doing in-home data collection. Ensure high-quality data collection, data management, and protocol adherence.
• Manage participant research activities: Maintain rapport with participants to support communication and retention, respond to diverse participant needs, and conduct follow-up interviews with participants in person, by phone, or by video. Serve as a liaison between participants and the research team and communicate relevant participant experiences, interim findings, and study updates to the research team.
• Conduct observational research: Identify and monitor relevant public events and online resources, attend and observe relevant events, and systematically collect observational data on music engagement to support study objectives.
• Conduct qualitative data analysis: Write detailed ethnographic fieldnotes and analytical memos following data collection. Conduct qualitative open coding, axial coding, content analysis, and thematic analysis using qualitative data analysis software (e.g. ATLAS.ti).
• Train research staff: Train other research team members in…