Senior Research Associate; Mixed Methods

Overview

The Prison Education Action Research Lab in the College of Education at the University of Utah seeks a Senior Research Associate with expertise in mixed methods. The Lab conducts research that advances educational justice for people and communities impacted by incarceration, with a vision that colleges and universities lead in fostering greater access to opportunity for all, including those affected by the legal system.

The Senior Research Associate (SRA) will undertake a wide range of strategic, academic, and capacity-building activities to enable and enhance research on prison higher education and reentry. In collaboration with institutional and program leaders, the SRA will oversee strategic research advancement, communicate research opportunities and findings, foster collaboration within the team, and engage a leadership role on research projects. The person filling this role will train other researchers, supervise research staff, oversee graduate assistants, and serve as primary research liaison to the Lab, the University, and external partners.

The SRA will work under the supervision of the Lab Director. We strongly encourage applications from individuals directly impacted by incarceration and punishment systems.

• Serve as the lead/co-lead researcher on multi-PI research projects;
• Lead all phases of research design, planning, and execution of mixed methods research projects, including literature review, developing research plans, creating data collection instruments, piloting and validating data, analyzing quantitative and qualitative data, and drafting/editing research reports and scholarly manuscripts;
• Serve as senior liaison with stakeholders including state agencies and higher education institutions;
• Oversee IRB protocols, data use agreements, and compliance monitoring across multiple institutions and jurisdictions;
• Lead regular cross-site meetings to align stakeholders;
• Coordinate secure data transfers and compliance across states and data providers;
• Maintain detailed documentation of data processing pipelines, codebooks, and metadata;
• Ensure appropriate data cleaning, harmonization, transformation, and documentation across diverse data sources;
• Apply intermediate and advanced statistical models and quantitative research designs;
• Design and oversee data linkage strategies across disparate administrative datasets;
• Design and conduct qualitative data collection (e.g., interviews, site visits, document analysis) and analysis;
• Lead mixed-methods integration to synthesize qualitative and quantitative insights;
• Interact with stakeholders, partner institutions/organizations, political figures, government entities, funders, and corporate leaders related to research initiatives;
• Develop and present research results in the form of technical reports, peer-reviewed manuscripts, briefs, presentations, webinars, etc., to inform internal and external stakeholders;
• Mentor, train, and supervise a team of researchers;
• Other research-related activities as assigned by the Lab Director.

Subject to allocation of appropriate funding, the supervisor may authorize support for travel to academic conferences and approved professional development activities, with prior approval required for the event date.

• PhD in education, social sciences, or related field or comparable professional experience;
• Advanced knowledge of the field of higher education;
• 5+ years of experience in mixed methods research, including longitudinal, administrative, and qualitative data analyses;
• Demonstrated experience conducting applied social science and/or educational research, including implementing experimental and quasi-experimental designs, survey techniques, and program evaluation;
• Demonstrated experience with data cleaning, data migration, and management of multiple administrative data sets;
• Demonstrated commitment to and knowledge about educational equity and justice;
• Ability to work well with and across diverse teams;
• Strong project management experience coordinating communications and logistics on a multi-site research project;
• Advanced knowledge of Excel, Python, R, NVivo, Dedoose, Atlas.ti, or other…