This position will operate under two labs in the Department of Psychiatry. Dr. Wang is housed within the larger Youth and Family Research Program (YFRP) in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh and her research is dedicated to understanding the development of alcohol use disorder. Dr. Hildebrandt’s lab leads translational studies on eating behaviors. Ongoing projects include a study to refine the assessment of loss of control over alcohol use in youth (PI: Wang) and developing a measure of loss of control over a variety of behaviors with potent reward value (PIs: Hildebrandt and Wang).
The Research Specialist will be responsible for all aspects of study coordination including participant recruitment, retention, screening, scheduling, and payment, database management, survey programming, managing day-to-day needs of the study and office (e.g., ordering supplies, etc), and leading and coordinate undergraduate directed research students. The employee should be able to navigate regular communication with multiple PIs. Given the employee’s interests and career goals, there are multiple opportunities for collaborating on or leading independent research projects within these labs.

• Contact and schedule potential participants from a designated pool of individuals who have agreed to be contacted for research studies.
• Conduct subject searches to locate subjects who are unable to be contacted.
• Explain research protocol and obtain informed consent from participants.
• Conduct on-line and/or library searches as needed by the PI as necessary.
• Perform phone interviews for research project protocol(s) as needed.
• Maintain and update subject information database.
• Conduct interviews with research participants under supervision as needed.
• Program online surveys.
• Database management.
• Recruitment of diverse and at-risk populations.
• Manage undergraduate directed research students.
• Bachelors Degree in Psychology, Neuroscience, Counseling, sociology or related research field or current enrollment in a related Bachelor’s Degree program with direct experience in a research environment required. One year of prior related work experience in a research setting preferred.
• Experience interacting with participants or patients preferred.
• Experience recruiting diverse populations preferred.
• Experience or exposure to coding-related tasks including programming Qualtrics surveys, utilizing SPSS to score variables preferred.
• Self-starter, independent, and responsible
• Familiarity with computers and common software packages required.
• Working knowledge of research methodology strongly preferred.