Careers Job Description
General Description
Position: Research Assistant, Spanish fluency required
General Description
The Barry Commoner Center for Health and the Environment is an environmental and occupational health research center located at Queens College, City University of New York. We are seeking a Research Assistant for an NIH-funded study – Safe and Just Cleaners: Reducing exposures to toxic cleaning chemical products among low wage immigrant Latino/a community members. This position is for one year only employed by the Research Foundation of CUNY. It will be virtual until permission is granted to work at Queens College. Some work will be located in the field (e.g. The Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai). It is a great opportunity for someone with an interest in public health or other applied urban social science research. Spanish fluency is required
The Safe and Just Cleaners study, https://safeandjustcleaners.org/, is a bilingual (Spanish/English) community-based participatory research partnership collecting data on household cleaners’ chemical exposures and other working conditions to improve the safety and health of immigrant Latinx household cleaners. Our research has documented their working conditions, will measure chemical exposures, and is conducting educational and public policy campaigns to improve immigrant Latinx household cleaners’ working conditions and health. For the current phase of our study, we are inviting current participants to collect data as citizen scientists. They will collect exposure data related to chemicals contained in cleaning products using smartphones to complete brief questionnaires and collecting air and skin exposures while they conduct standard cleaning tasks. The Research Assistant is not required to have specific knowledge related to collecting this type of data.
The Research Assistant will be involved with two parts of this research: 1) Assisting research staff with recruitment, training, logistics and follow-up with Spanish-speaking housecleaner research participants for the exposure data collection; and 2) a related social-behavioral study about bioethical principles in citizen science research (For more information, refer to “The Belmont Report”). In this second part, we will explore how different groups of people involved (participants, research staff, and research ethics review personnel) understand the bioethical principles of respect for persons, beneficence, and justice when assessing potential harm to research participants. This research will be conducted simultaneously during the exposure data collection phase. Interest in this topic is essential.
Salary and Benefits
Salary based on qualification range $38,000- $42,000
The position offers a comprehensive benefits package
Hours
35 hours a week. Some evening and weekend hours will be necessary when doing outreach and interviews with the household cleaners; one year-position.
Other Duties
Job Description
Assist the research team with the following responsibilities:
- Recruitment and follow-up with housecleaner participants through phone calls, text messaging/ WhatsApp and emails. Most of these activities are expected to be conducted independently.
- Conducting brief interviews with participants about their experience while they are assisting in the research.
- Writing summaries and reflections during or immediately after focus groups and other research activities about the housecleaners’ experiences assisting in the research.
- Provide support for developing and conducting training sessions.
- Provide support for exposure assessment data collection. We will provide the necessary technical training to conduct these activities.
- Support for other outreach project-related activities
Qualifications
Qualifications
Willing and able to communicate and relate to Latinx immigrant household cleaners in Spanish.
- High level of oral and written Spanish and English is required
- Able to observe, summarize, and reflect by capturing key events and ideas in written format.
- Able to communicate with research team on a consistent basis about successes and challenges about the research
- Able to take and follow direction well
- Well organized and able to manage time
- Responsive to needs or requests by housecleaners and research team
- Willingness to learn about the specific exposure assessment activities included in the research
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience appropriate to the position.
RFCUNY Benefits
RFCUNY Employee Benefits and AccrualsAbout the Research Foundation
The Research Foundation of The City University of New York (RFCUNY) was established as a not-for-profit educational corporation chartered by the State of New York in 1963. RFCUNY supports CUNY faculty and staff in identifying and obtaining external support (pre-award) from government and private sponsors and is responsible for the administration of all such funded programs (post-award).
RFCUNY stands between CUNY’s principal investigators (PIs) and the sponsors who support them and strives to fulfill its essential responsibilities to both groups. Working closely with individual PIs and Grants Officers on the campuses, RFCUNY oversees employment, accounting, audit, reporting, purchasing, and special responsibilities that include management of a planned giving program; liaison with governmental agencies and foundations; negotiation of agreements; facility construction and renovation; protection and commercialization of intellectual property; and compliance with applicable standards in research involving human subjects, animal care, environmental and radiological safety, and conflicts of interest.
Equal Employment Opportunity Statement
Key Features
Barry Commoner Center
Full Time
Depends on Qualifications
Dec 01, 2021 (Or Until Filled)