Discover Vanderbilt University Medical Center : Located in Nashville, Tennessee, and operating at a global crossroads of teaching, discovery, and patient care, VUMC is a community of individuals who come to work each day with the simple aim of changing the world. It is a place where your expertise will be valued, your knowledge expanded, and your abilities challenged. Vanderbilt Health is committed to an environment where everyone has the chance to thrive and where your uniqueness is sought and celebrated. It is a place where employees know they are part of something that is bigger than themselves, take exceptional pride in their work and never settle for what was good enough yesterday. Vanderbilt’s mission is to advance health and wellness through preeminent programs in patient care, education, and research.

JOB SUMMARY:

Provide, under direct supervision, support for specified research projects; collect, assess, and communicate data/results. Develop independence in research activities and lead research activities including data collection, data analysis, and management of lab activities (e.g., scheduling research participants, administering payments, communicating with participants). Work in a team environment to conduct lab related activities and serve a primary role in analyzing physiological data such as ECG/EDA and EEG/ERP. Assist in general laboratory operation and inventory, including management of the lab space.
One of the KEY responsibilities for this position is to help collect data during participants data and take a primary role in the cleaning and analysis of physiological data (e.g., EEG/ERP measures of brain activity).
This role can be part-time or full-time during standard daytime business hours and will mostly be Monday-Friday; However, occasional work on weekend hours with ample advance notice is possible; flexibility is key!
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DEPARTMENT SUMMARY

The Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center has served Middle Tennessee and beyond since 1951. We diagnose and treat hearing, speech, language and cognitive problems that affect communication in adults and children. Our team of more than 100 experts includes audiologists, speech-language pathologists, teachers of the deaf, occupational therapists, physical therapists and social workers. We offer every patient compassionate, personalized care. Additionally, Bill Wilkerson is a teaching site for deaf educators, audiologists, speech-language pathologists and physical therapists. For more information, please visit https://www.vanderbilthealth.com/service-line/hearing-and-speech .

TECHNICAL CAPABILITIES

Requirements

• Interest to work in academic research environment
• Excellent organizational, problem-solving, and communication skills
• Familiarity with basic office applications, including excel, and basic computing skills

Preferences

• Experience with REDcap databases is strongly preferred, but not required.
• Experience with technologies/methodologies such as ECG/EDA and EEG/ERP are strongly preferred, but not required.
• Experience with Python, MATLAB, and R are preferred, but not required.
• Experience with EEG/ERP analysis softwares and code, such as MNE, ERPLAB, Netstation, etc. are preferred, but not required.
• Experience with or willingness to learn approaches to enhance participant recruitment and retention
• Ability to manage and schedule large cohort of participants
• Experience collecting behavioral, psychological, and/or speech-language related formal and informal test data

Our Academic Enterprise is one of the nation’s longest serving and most prestigious academic medical centers. Through its historic bond with Vanderbilt University and integral role in the School of Medicine, Vanderbilt Health cultivates distinguished research and educational programs to advance a clinical enterprise that provides compassionate and personalized care and support for millions of patients and family members each year.
World-leading academic departments and comprehensive centers of excellence pursue scientific discoveries and transformational educational and clinical advances across the entire spectrum of health and disease.
Aligning with Vanderbilt Health’s Strategic Directions , the Office of Research provides shared research resources, administrative expertise and professional guidance to enable the trans-disciplinary environment and highly collaborative culture that advances discovery and training for all the research faculty, trainees, students and staff.

CORE ACCOUNTABILITIES:

Organizational Impact: Delivers job responsibilities that impact own job area/team with some guidance. Problem Solving/ Complexity of work: Uses existing procedures, research and analysis to solve standard job related problems that may require some judgement. Breadth of Knowledge: Requires subject matter knowledge within a professional area to meet job requirements. Team Interaction: Individually contributes to project/ work teams.
Core Capabilities :
Supporting Colleagues: - Develops Self and Others: Continuously improves own skills by identifying development opportunities.- Builds and Maintains Relationships: Seeks to understand colleagues priorities, working styles and develops relationships across areas. - Communicates Effectively: Openly shares information with others and communicates in a clear and courteous manner. Delivering Excellent Services: - Serves Others with Compassion: Invests time to understand the problems, needs of others and how to provide excellent service. - Solves Complex Problems: Seeks to understand issues, solves routine problems, and raises proper concerns to supervisors in a timely manner. - Offers Meaningful Advice and Support: Listens carefully to understand the issues and provides accurate information and support. Ensuring High Quality: - Performs Excellent Work: Checks work quality before delivery and asks relevant questions to meet quality standards.- Ensures Continuous Improvement: Shows eagerness to learn new knowledge, technologies, tools or systems and displays willingness to go above and beyond. - Fulfills Safety and Regulatory Requirements: Demonstrates basic knowledge of conditions that affect safety and reports unsafe conditions to the appropriate person or department. Managing Resources Effectively :- Demonstrates Accountability: Takes responsibility for completing assigned activities and thinks beyond standard approaches to provide high-quality work/service. - Stewards Organizational Resources: Displays understanding of how personal actions will impact departmental resources. - Makes Data Driven Decisions: Uses accurate information and good decision making to consistently achieve results on time and without error. Fostering Innovation: - Generates New Ideas: Willingly proposes/accepts ideas or initiatives that will impact day-to-day operations by offering suggestions to enhance them.- Applies Technology: Absorbs new technology quickly; understands when to utilize the appropriate tools and procedures to ensure proper course of action. - Adapts to Change: Embraces changes by keeping an open mind to changing plans and incorporates change instructions into own area of work.

WORK EXPERIENCE :

Relevant Work Experience

EXPERIENCE LEVEL :

Less than 1 year

EDUCATION :

Bachelor’s
Vanderbilt Health is committed to fostering an environment where everyone has the chance to thrive and is committed to the principles of equal opportunity. EOE/Vets/Disabled.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

The following responsibilities will be performed in a research lab and in a team environment. The successful applicant will demonstrate independence (or ability to achieve independence) in many of these areas.

• Run experiments and record results
• Perform speech-language, cognitive, behavioral, and psychological testing
• Collect physiological data while conducting experimental paradigms
• Collection and management of all other study related data
• Assist with the management of the IRB
• Perform participant recruitment, screening, consenting, and scheduling
• Manage lab materials and equipment
• Maintain REDCap and other databases
• Follow all lab and experimental protocols and manuals
• Follow VUMC safety protocols
• Assistance with supporting materials for grant proposals, manuscripts, and presentations
• Develop or revise as needed manuals relevant to diagnostic, experimental and analytic procedures
• Develop or revise as needed plans to ensure a) fidelity in administration of experimental procedures and b) reliability in scoring/coding of assessments and entry of data
• Collect and analyze psychophysical and physiological measures, such as heart rate, EEG/ERP, etc.
• Record, compile, and communicate data and results to PI
• Assist in preparation of results for dissemination via various means, including oral presentations and manuscripts
• Maintain knowledge of scientific trends in research in stuttering through literature reviews, attendance at meetings, conferences, and seminars
• Ensure Laboratory is prepared for experiments

Coordination of Research-Related Activities:

• Assist in interviewing, hiring, and supervising/coordinating undergraduate and/or graduate research assistants
• Assist PI to ensure that all student research assistants are in compliance with IRB and on-track to achieve their personal lab training objectives
• Coordinate times and locations for in-person meetings and/or conference calls with collaborators across departments and institutions
• Assist with submissions to, and travel arrangements for, several interdisciplinary conferences, trainings, professional development activities annually
• Assist in development of parent and/or clinician friendly newsletters, emails, press releases, social media and/or web content that will ensure effective translational of laboratory findings from research to practice
• Assist with management of lab website

NOTE: These responsibilities listed are a general overview of possible activities associated with the position and additional duties may be assigned.