Postdoctoral Research Scientist

Job Title:
Postdoctoral Research Scientist

Grade: 21

Salary: $75,245-$90,726

The Research Foundation for Mental Hygiene is seeking a qualified candidate to fill a Postdoctoral Research Scientist Position. The Center for Behavioral Health and Youth Justice at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and the New York State Psychiatric Institute is recruiting a Postdoctoral Research Scientist interested in a career conducting research on understanding and addressing mental health and substance use problems among youth and adults involved with the justice system.

The fellow will work directly under the mentorship of Dr. Katherine Elkington for a 1-year fellowship, with opportunities for external mentorship from researchers from the broader Columbia University Irving Medical Center and from within the NIDA Justice Community Opioid Innovation Network. The fellow will primarily work on a NIDA-funded Initiative – Project Court REACH (UG1DA05700) – which is focused on developing and testing implementation strategies to support the roll-out of 10 novel opioid courts across New York State.

The JCOIN consortium is a NIDA-funded initiative focused on increasing access to evidence‑based treatments for individuals with opioid use disorder who are within the justice system. The initiative is comprised of 14 research hubs of which NYSPI/CUIMC Project Court REACH is one. The successful candidate will collaborate with leading researchers, contribute to cutting‑edge projects, and have opportunities for publication, mentorship, grant writing, and contributions to the design and development of future studies.

Beyond JCOIN activities, integration into other projects will be based on the fellow’s interests and training needs. There are currently multiple NIH‑funded studies at the Center, including clinical trials for interventions to improve identification of behavioral health risk, including suicide, in justice‑involved youth and increase referral and initiation of treatment and care. There are also qualitative and quantitative data from multiple NIH‑funded studies focused on identification and prevention of health and behavioral.

• Collaborate with a project coordinator on supervising and/or conducting any remaining in-depth interviews/focus groups with project community partners; assist in interview/focus group coding and analysis.
• Conceptualize relevant research questions/papers and support analysis of large project qualitative and quantitative datasets.
• Oversee systematic literature reviews of epidemiologic and treatment studies on topics relevant to the current study (e.g., opioid and co‑occurring drug use, court participants, linkage to treatment).
• Serve as primary author or co‑author for journal articles and chapters for publication.
• Write or assist with writing grant progress reports and new grant applications.
• Attend professional conferences for continuing education and to present study results.
• Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams of researchers: epidemiologists, addiction psychiatrists/psychologists, lawyers, biostatisticians, and public health experts. Foster a collaborative and inclusive research environment.
• Provide mentorship and guidance to junior researchers, graduate students, and interns working on the project.

• At least 1 year of experience working as part of a multidisciplinary research team.
• Demonstrated record of publications.
• At least 1 year of training in human subjects’ research protocols and ethical conduct of research.

• Prior record of grant funding and/or at least 1 year of partnerships with community‑based organizations a plus.
• Demonstrated strong analytical and problem‑solving skills and experience using statistical techniques and software (e.g., SPSS, SAS, STATA, MPlus, R).
• Excellent communication skills, both written and oral, for presenting research findings and collaborating effectively with team members and stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to work both independently and as part of a collaborative team.
• Demonstrated attention to detail and a commitment to rigorous research methodologies.

Work Location: 1051 Riverside…