This page will be updated with open positions and job opportunities at the lab:
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Postdoctoral Fellowship in Addictions Research
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Keck School of Medicine
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA
The Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Southern California is seeking a full-time postdoctoral research fellow to execute grant-funded research on substance use and other health-related behavioral and psychosocial domains with veterans and young adults. Ideally, the fellow will have proficient therapy skills and training in statistical analyses to aid in analyzing data from randomized controlled trials and from longitudinal survey studies. The Fellow will work across multiple active NIH grants and research studies with Eric Pedersen, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Broadly, research projects aim to decrease hazardous substance use behavior, alleviate mental health symptoms, and reduce risks for sexual violence among veterans and young adults through innovative brief online and mobile-based brief interventions. Current projects include a randomized controlled trial of a mindfulness-based mobile program with veterans, a randomized controlled trial of a brief alcohol intervention targeting disorder eating behavior and heavy drinking among college students, a randomized controlled trial of an app that combines cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia and brief alcohol intervention content to help veterans improve their sleep and reduce their drinking, and a longitudinal survey study examining substance use and mental health outcomes among women and racial/ethnic minority veterans. The position includes an approximate quarter-time position conducting in-person and online therapy sessions with veterans as part of a large multisite trial of meditation for those with posttraumatic stress disorder. There will be opportunities to gain further clinical experience with college students, through a partnership with the University of Southern California’s Counseling and Mental Health Services. In addition, there will be multiple opportunities to collaborate with researchers across the University of Southern California; primarily, with researchers in the Department of Population and Health Sciences, the Center for Mindfulness Science, the Center for Artificial Intelligence in Society, and the Institute for Addiction Science. The position term is for one to three years. The start date is flexible but should be no later than July 1, 2025.
Responsibilities include:
- Coordinate all aspects of project implementation, evaluation/analysis, and dissemination of study findings (opportunities for significant publications)
- Provide analytic support for randomized controlled trials and for studies using longitudinal observational data
- Facilitate therapy sessions with veterans and college students as part of randomized controlled trials
- Synthesize existing data and generate manuscript proposals
- Be active in grant-writing and design of new studies
- Provide supervision and mentorship for staff, graduate students, and undergraduate research assistants
Qualifications:
- Doctorate or Doctoral candidate in Psychology or other social science-based field preferred. Incumbent will be expected to continue upgrading knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to keep abreast of regulation and policy changes.
- Prior experience as a senior-level research associate. Strong familiarity with psychological and theoretical factors related to substance use and other health risk behaviors. Must have a history of scientific peer-reviewed manuscript preparation and successful dissemination
- Demonstrated knowledge and strong fundamental background with basic and advanced statistics
- Demonstrated computer competency and expertise in using statistical software (e.g., STATA, R)
- Preferred experience with machine learning algorithms for longitudinal data analysis (e.g., support vector machines, random forests, artificial neural networks, etc.).
- Exemplary communication skills (both written and oral)
- Highly developed organizational and leadership skills
- Ability to work independently and collaboratively
To apply, please send a cover letter, statement of research interests, two paper reprints that best exemplify the candidate’s writing skills, and a curriculum vitae to Dr. Eric Pedersen at Eric.Pedersen@med.usc.edu. Additionally, please arrange to have three letters of recommendation sent to Dr. Pedersen if requested.
Student Research Assistant (Remote)
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Keck School of Medicine
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA
The Prevention, Early Intervention, and Addictions Recovery Lab is seeking student research assistants (RAs) to work remotely on a project regarding racial/ethnic minority and women military veterans.
Study description: Though the majority of the military is composed of non-Hispanic white men, the number of racial/ethnic minority and women veterans has steadily increased in recent years. African-American/Black and Hispanic veterans make up the largest proportion of the minority veteran population (about 50% and 30% of minority veterans, respectively) and the number of women veterans, especially racial/ethnic minority women, is expected to grow. Noted differences in alcohol use and behavioral health symptoms of PTSD and depression, as well as behavioral health care access, have been reported for post-9/11 African-American/Black, Hispanic veterans, and women veterans. However, research on disparities in veterans’ behavioral health care service utilization and behavioral health symptomology primarily focuses on veterans’ use of VA facilities, therefore missing 50% of veterans not receiving VA care. Unfortunately, there is limited research on the associations between perceived discrimination and quality of behavioral health care or behavioral health care access among racial/ethnic minority and women veterans who receive care outside of the VA system. Further, the studies that do exist on disparities among veterans tend to be cross-sectional and they limit their examination of disparities to individual factors only and do not incorporate larger environmental factors. Thus, the current study seeks to extend prior work by recruiting 2,000 non-VA attending veterans with 4 years of follow up (bi annual assessments). First, in an attempt to better understand veterans’ experiences of discrimination, 65 veterans will be recruited for in depth qualitative interviews. Results of these interviews will inform (not determine) measurement in the larger study. Once completed, recruitment will begin for the longitudinal cohort. We will oversample for racial/ethnic minority veterans (70% of the total recruited sample; n =1,400) and women veterans (40% of both racial/ethnic minority and non-Hispanic white recruited veterans; n = 800). Outcome data will be collected on behavioral health symptoms, including alcohol use/disorder, PTSD, and depression, as well as behavioral health care access (alcohol use treatment receipt, preparatory behaviors, attitudes about treatment). Experiences of racial discrimination and sexism (e.g., dignity denial, microaggressions, gender discrimination, sexual harassment, health care discrimination) will be collected each wave. In addition to individual level data, we will use publicly available datasets to gather data on neighborhood deprivation, segregation, neighborhood violence, distance to health care facilities, and liquor/alcohol outlets. We will use machine learning models that incorporate all hypothesized predictors across both individual and environmental domains to determine which factors are most important in predicting behavioral health symptoms, care receipt, and attitudes, and the valence of individual predictor effects on outcomes. The latter can provide a rank order of importance of predictors to help more clearly guide future prevention, intervention, and policy efforts.
Responsibilities include:
- Phone calls and e-mail outreach to retain study participants
- Attending regular lab meetings with other RAs and project coordinators
- 5-10 hours of remote work per week
- Potential opportunities for research papers, poster presentations, etc.
Qualifications:
- Sophomore or junior standing preferred (but not required)
- Good communication skills; must be comfortable calling study participants with study information, reminders, etc.
- Ability to independently handle tasks each week and check in regularly with project coordinators
To apply, please send a statement of research interests and a curriculum vitae/resume to Dr. Eric Pedersen at Eric.Pedersen@med.usc.edu.