Research Assistant (ENLACES) - Student Worker

Location: Remote, USA

Compensation Range

: $0.00 - $0.00

Position Description

The Research Assistant for ENLACES, is a part-time (10-20 hours per week), graduate student worker opportunity with National University. Working directly under the leadership and supervision of the ENLACES Research Director, the Research Assistant plays a vital role in supporting research project start-up activities, including establishing operational workflows, creating project timelines, building data collection protocols, drafting IRB applications, coordinating initial partner convenings, and grant proposal drafting. Additional ongoing research activities include mixed-methods data collection, analysis, and reporting. ENLACES is committed to advancing culturally responsive, equity-focused research designed to promote continuous improvement of ENLACES initiatives to meet the needs of diverse and historically underserved populations.

The incumbent plays a key role to enact, implement, and write-up implementation and impact research, generate research deliverables, and support research-practice partnerships (RPPs) across the organization —such as literature reviews, research and policy reviews, peer-reviewed publication drafts, grant proposal drafts, and practitioner-friendly research briefs. This role provides graduate students with hands-on research mentorship, high-level project management experience, and scholarly writing opportunities in real world community-engaged research.

Opportunities will also be provided for the Research Assistant to engage internal and external research partners, provide support to external evaluators, and ensure tasks are executed in a timely manner. Specifically, this individual will conduct research to ensure a deeper understanding of ENLACES programs and initiatives for equity and excellence, as well as helping to ensure sustainability of the university-community partnerships.

Essential Functions

Participate in regular ENLACES research team meetings and research-practice partnership convenings. (weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly, as needed).

Provide project management support for start-up and ongoing projects by tracking priorities, creating and managing timelines, establishing workflow systems, and reporting deliverable statuses.

Provide administrative support for day-to-day operations, including task monitoring, appointment scheduling, meeting documentation, and follow-up communication with internal and external partners.

Assist with coordination and planning logistics for major research, community, and policy projects.

Engage in mixed-methods research activities, including survey and qualitative interview protocol design, interview and focus group facilitation, document analysis, and observational data collection.

Communicate with internal and external ENLACES partners to coordinate data collection activities, interpret analytic findings, and share results.

Perform data management duties, including data cleaning, data entry, data validation, database structuring, and maintaining secure, de-identified participant data in compliance with data privacy standards.

Analyze both quantitative data (descriptive and correlational data) and qualitative data (thematic analysis) in collaboration with leadership and partners.

Draft comprehensive data reports, executive summaries, practitioner-friendly briefs, and manuscript sections for peer-reviewed publications in collaboration with leadership and partners.

Synthesize and write up literature reviews and research briefs focused on priority topics identified with the ENLACES Research Director and research team partners.

Help prepare presentation materials, posters, and slide decks for academic conferences, policy briefings, and partner meetings.

Draft Institutional Review Board (IRB) applications, protocol modifications, and compliance documentation for projects.

Collaborate with external evaluators and community partners to execute collaborative research projects and engage in authentic research-practice partnerships (RPPs).

Ensure research projects consistently incorporate equity principles (e.g., disaggregation of data, evaluation of program accessibility, and assessment of outcomes across diverse student demographics).

Complete special projects and other research-related duties as assigned by the ENLACES Research Director.

Requirements

Education & Experience

Must be a Full-time or part-time graduate student in any school or program at National University

Bachelor’s Degree is required.

Minimum of 1-2 years of experience in education, social science research, or policy.

Competencies/Technical/Functional Skills

Exceptional interpersonal, teamwork, and collaboration skills.

Demonstrated ability to work with underserved populations in high-need communities.

Excellent oral and written communication skills.

Strong organizational skills with the ability to manage timelines and deliverables independently.

Experience in social and emotional development, K-12 education, or culturally responsive practices.

General understanding of best practices in research and evaluation.

Ability to analyze qualitative data and basic quantitative data.

Proficient computer and standard office equipment skills.

Excellent phone/Zoom etiquette.

Conveys high integrity and honesty.

Ability to handle ambiguity.

Ability to travel, with possible overnight involved (when allowed).

Experience with qualitative coding software (NVivo) and basic quantitative tools (SPSS, Excel) (preferred).

Knowledge of IRB processes, grant proposal drafting, and research-practice partnerships (preferred).

#LI-DNI

Candidate receiving offers will be offered a salary/pay rate commensurate with experience that vary based on a candidate’s qualifications, skills, and competencies.  Absent exceptional circumstances, candidates will be offered a salary within this range for this position. The minimum salary will be offered based on t