West Orange, NJ, USA
Full-time
Salary:  $63,480-77,076, commensurate with NIH guidelines

The Center for Spinal Cord Injury Research (CSCIR) at Kessler Foundation—in collaboration with the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School—is seeking applicants for a Postdoctoral Fellowship.

Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) Navigator Program and Community Transition Initiatives

Working at the intersection of research and real-world service delivery, the SCI Navigator Program supports people with spinal cord injury and their family caregivers, as they move from inpatient rehabilitation to home and community living.  (Program information:  Kessler Foundation SCI Navigator Program | Kessler Foundation)

This two-year fellowship provides advanced, individually tailored training to prepare scientists for an independent career in rehabilitation research.  All postdoctoral fellows participate in an extensive training curriculum and didactic offerings.  Multidisciplinary-mentored training opportunities are individually tailored to achieve specific goals considering each fellow’s background and interests.

(Fellowship Program information:  Postdoctoral Fellowship Program | Kessler Foundation)

 

To apply: Please submit the following materials via email to [email protected]:

  1. Cover letter detailing applicant’s career goals, research, background, and training experience that demonstrate commitment and track record of activities.
  2. Curriculum vitae.
  3. Three letters of recommendation.
  4. Copy of graduate program transcripts.
  5. Copies of publications or manuscripts.

Please submit questions to Denise C. Fyffe, PhD, FACRM ([email protected]).

Responsibilities include
  • Contribute to projects from inception (study formulation and grant writing) through dissemination (conference presentations and peer-reviewed publications).
  • Apply implementation science, mixed methods, and community-engaged research approaches to strengthen how navigation is delivered, measured, and sustained.
  • Develop own mentored research project.
  • Advance community-engaged science across the research-to-practice continuum, working in equitable partnership with people living with SCI, family caregivers, SCI Navigators, clinicians, and community organizations.
Qualifications
  • PhD in rehabilitation or disability studies, psychology, occupational/rehabilitation therapy, behavioral science, social science, public health, or a related discipline, completed within the last five years. The dissertation must be defended before the fellowship start date.
  • Excellent academic record, with at least one peer-reviewed publication and evidence of conference presentations.
  • Demonstrated commitment to improving the health and well-being of communities, especially people with disabilities and their families.
  • Research experience with human subjects.
  • Experience integrating the perspectives of people with disabilities and family caregivers into research design, data collection, analysis, and dissemination.
  • Ability to work independently with a high level of initiative and self-direction, while collaborating effectively with multiple stakeholders.
  • Excellent interpersonal and communication skills (verbal and written).
  • Strong skills in qualitative and qualitative research (e.g., grounded theory, phenomenology, ethnography, thematic analysis, randomized controlled trials, experimental or pragmatic designs), including interviewing, focus group facilitation, coding, synthesis; and survey design and statistical analysis.
  • Strong data-management and analytical skills, including data quality control and descriptive and multivariate statistics, with demonstrated use of statistical software (e.g., SPSS, SAS, R) and qualitative analysis software (e.g., NVivo, ATLAS.ti, MAXQDA).
  • Experience with digital tools and platforms for research and engagement (e.g., REDCap, online surveys, social media).
  • Ability to facilitate meetings and co-design sessions with community members, and to translate research into plain-language materials.
  • Strong organizational and project-management skills across multiple concurrent projects.
  • Proficiency in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Planner.
  • Ability to prepare IRB submissions, protocols, data collection instruments, and scientific reports.