AHPS Data Disseminator Coordinator

About the job

Be a Tar Heel!

A global higher education leader in innovative teaching, research and public service, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill consistently ranks as one of the nation’s top public universities. Known for its beautiful campus, world-class medical care, commitment to the arts and top athletic programs, Carolina is an ideal place to teach, work and learn.

One of the best college towns and best places to live in the United States, Chapel Hill has diverse social, cultural, recreation and professional opportunities that span the campus and community.

University employees can choose from a wide range of professional training opportunities for career growth, skill development and lifelong learning and enjoy exclusive perks for numerous retail, restaurant and performing arts discounts, savings on local child care centers and special rates on select campus events. UNC-Chapel Hill offers full-time employees a comprehensive benefits package, paid leave, and a variety of health, life and retirement plans and additional programs that support a healthy work/life balance.

Primary Purpose of Organizational Unit

Since 1966, researchers at the Carolina Population Center have pioneered data collection and research techniques that move population science forward by emphasizing life course approaches, longitudinal surveys, the integration of biological measurement into social surveys, and attention to context and environment. We are also at the forefront of creating interdisciplinary training programs that integrate approaches from the social and biological sciences, building research capacity and training the next generation of scholars. Our faculty fellows address pressing research questions about population dynamics, fertility, health, mortality, migration, and the environment. Faculty come from multiple disciplines, benefitting from the cross-pollination of ideas. Our dedicated research and programming staff support fellows at every stage of project development, from conception through data collection or acquisition, analysis and dissemination, and project administration. https://www.cpc.unc.edu/about/

Position Summary

The Carolina Population Center (CPC) is a community of scholars and professionals collaborating on interdisciplinary research and methods that advance understanding of population issues. The Center conducts path-breaking work across the US and in more than 50 other countries and makes its findings available to a global audience. A nationally recognized training program educates the next generation of population scholars.

The Add Health Parent Study (AHPS), housed at CPC, is an innovative intergenerational biosocial project funded by NIH for a second phase that will expand the study sample and add new cognitive and genetic data. An interdisciplinary team of scientists will collect longitudinal cognitive, social, behavioral, and biological data on parents of individuals who participated in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), which has been administered at CPC for 25+ years.

Phase 2 of the Add Health Parent Study will expand the AHPS sample through additional recruitment of parents. These new participants will be administered a one-hour survey that Phase 1 participants completed. The full AHPS sample (e.g., Phase 1 and 2) will then be administered an Alzheimer’s Disease and Alzheimer’s Disease Related Dementias (AD/ADRD) Assessment, and physical measures and DNA data collection. These data will be linked to an earlier wave of data collection on the parents to create longitudinal AHPS data and also linked to longitudinal data on their children in Add Health. Cognitive measures across the two generations and a multigenerational genomic database will be created, and these new data will be available to the scientific community of 50,000+ Add Health and AHPS users. This project will facilitate the study of cognitive aging, caregiving, dementia risks and related health outcomes across two generations with longitudinal, nationally representative data collected from adult children and their parents.

The Data Dissemination Coordinator will work closely with the Add Health Parent Study Project Managers, data manager and programmer to assist them in close monitoring of the Assessment data, trouble shoot data issues and prepare any updates to the protocols to the IRB for approval. They will also provide help in variable construction and descriptive analyses of AD/ADRD data for validity checks by comparing prevalence estimates of the various cognitive assessments to data from other comparable national studies.

The Data Dissemination Coordinator will be instrumental in supporting the AHPS data manager and project staff by creating user-friendly guides and documentation for data releases, maintaining data file consistency, and updating the AHPS website for easy data access via the CPC Data Portal. They will also facilitate communication of new data releases to the Add Health and AHPS user community, focusing on enhancing data accessibility. They will perform literature review and research brief for the Add Health community. Additionally, they will manage the Phase 2 public use sample, merging it with the Phase 1 sample and combining Phase 1 and 2 data files with the Wave I parent sample. Their role also includes overseeing the deposition of longitudinal public use data with comprehensive documentation to ICPSR for public use AHPS data release, without involvement in contract-related tasks.

Minimum Education and Experience Requirements

Master’s or Bachelor’s and 0-2 years’ experience; or will accept a combination of related education and experience in substitution.

Required Qualifications, Competencies, and Experience

• Extensive understanding of IRB, research data and some experience as a research analyst.
• The successful candidate must demonstrate outstanding organizational and management skills, including the ability to develop plans and timelines for research and technical activities, anticipate and solve problems, prioritize competing demands, work independently, and effectively coordinate activities among various individuals.

Preferred Qualifications, Competencies, and Experience

• A master’s degree in information sciences, social sciences or public health, or related area is preferred.
• Familiarity with tools such as R, SAS, Stata, statistical transfer software, encryption software is desirable.

Office of Human Resources Contact Information

If you experience any problems accessing the system or have questions about the application process, please contact the Office of Human Resources at (919) 843-2300 or send an email to employment@unc.edu Please note: The Office of Human Resources will not be able to provide specific updates regarding position or application status.