Research Assistant at EPA

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The EPA National Student Services Contract has an immediate opening for a full time Research Assistant at EPA position with the Office of Research and Development at the EPA facility in Washington, D.C.

The Office of Research and Development at the EPA supports high-quality research to improve the scientific basis for decisions on national environmental issues and help EPA achieve its environmental goals. Research is conducted in a broad range of environmental areas by scientists in EPA laboratories and at universities across the country.

What the EPA project is about

The Homeland Security Research Program (HSRP) is responsible for addressing the research needs associated with EPA fulling its homeland security-related responsibilities. These responsibilities include preparing for and responding to environmental contamination that threatens human health resulting from a disaster. HSRP staff work closely with EPA Program and Regional offices and with other federal, state, and local collaborators to develop capabilities for supporting disaster preparedness, emergency response, recovery, and resilience. HSRP has a new social science research area on communities, resilience, and remediation. This research area analyzes the intertwined social and environmental variables that affect community resilience and vulnerability to homeland security incidents and other disasters. It uses social science theories and methods to investigate the topics of community resilience, including its intersection with climate change, equity, and environmental justice; community engagement in remediation, removals, redevelopment, and emergency response; risk communication; and disaster waste management decision-making. It uses human-centered design to develop decision-support resources for the Agency and its state, tribal, and local partners.

What experience and skills will you gain?

As a team member, you will provide research and development, communications, and management and administrative support to the principal investigator and research teams carrying out social science in the HSRP Communities, Resilience, and Remediation research area in ORD.

Research and Development responsibilities will include:

• Assist with the organization of bibliographic databases in Endnote or other bibliographic software.
• Assist with literature reviews and analysis of scientific and grey literature on communities, resilience, and remediation topics.
• Prepare figures, tables, and other graphics on research theory, methods, and findings.
• Assist with carrying out research using methods from the social sciences, including but not limited to participant observation, interviews, focus groups, secondary data (e.g., Census), document analysis.
• Assist with developing research products using a human-centered design techniques to understand and address user needs in product design and content creation.
• Assist with research planning, including tracking progress, preparation of quality assurance project plans and/or institutional review board proposals, information quality requests.
• Transcribe recordings and perform quality control checks on transcripts and other data.
• Manage spreadsheet of EPA and external tools and resources that support community capacity building and resilience.
• Attend webinars and briefings on resilience and remediation-related topics; listen in, take notes, and report back to the team.

Management and Administrative responsibilities will include:

• Participate as a member of the research team. Use Teams and other software to collaborate with team members, assist with carrying out project management and tracking tasks, and maintain an organizational system for managing documents and other project materials.
• Assist with logistics and coordination of interviews, focus groups, workshops, and other research activities with participants from inside and outside the Agency, including scheduling, setting up meetings, managing recordings, troubleshooting connection problems.
• Coordinate meetings, including creating agendas, facilitating discussion, taking meeting notes, and following up on action items.

Communications-related responsibilities will include:

• Assist with the logistics, coordination, and facilitation for briefings, meetings, workshops, and other collaborative efforts, including setting up meetings, contacting potential presenters and participants, organizing related materials, facilitating breakout groups or whole-group activities, and taking notes.
• Assist the team in the development of communication materials and management of outreach and engagement on the research (e.g., website content, briefings, blogs, videos, podcasts, virtual or in-person meetings).
• Prepare instructional materials (e.g., user guides, training slides, how-to worksheets) for research products.
   

Required Knowledge, Skills, Work Experience, and Education

• At least two courses in environmental studies and/or environmental policy, environmental science, environmental health, public health, urban planning, disasters, emergency management;
• Experience working with community-based organizations and/or environmental groups, neighborhood associations, government, other organizations, to solve local problems;
• Experience working on a team and handling multiple assignments with competing deadlines; and
• Experience using software for administrative support, team collaboration, data management, graphics.

Location: This job will be located EPA’s facility in Washington, D.C.

Salary: Selected applicant will become a temporary employee of ORAU and will receive an hourly wage of $24.20 for hours worked.

Hours: Full-time.

Travel: Occasional overnight travel may be required.

Expected start date: The position is full time and expected to begin November 2022. The selected applicant will become a temporary employee of ORAU working as a contractor to EPA. The contract renews each May through 2025.

For more information, contact EPANSSC@orau.org. Do not contact EPA directly.

• Be at least 18 years of age and
• Have earned at least a bachelor’s degree in a social science field, including anthropology, sociology, geography, economics, psychology, political science, environmental studies, or other closely related areas from an accredited university or college within the last 24 months and
• Be a citizen of the United States of America or a Legal Permanent Resident.

EPA ORD employees, their spouses, and children are not eligible to participate in this program.

• Citizenship: LPR or U.S. Citizen
• Degree: Bachelor's Degree received within the last 24 month(s).
• Overall GPA: 2.00
• Discipline(s):
  • Environmental and Marine Sciences (14 )
  • Social and Behavioral Sciences (29 )

I certify that I am at least 18 years of age; a recent graduate with at least a bachelor’s degree in a social science field, including anthropology, sociology, geography, economics, psychology, political science, environmental studies, or other closely related areas from an accredited university or college within the last 24 months; a citizen or a Legal Permanent Resident of the United States of America; and not a current employee of EPA ORD or the spouse or child of an EPA ORD employee.