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• An application
• Transcripts – Click here for detailed information about acceptable transcripts
• A current resume/CV, including academic history, employment history, relevant experiences, and publication list
• One educational or professional recommendation. Your application will be considered incomplete, and will not be reviewed until one recommendation is submitted.

All documents must be in English or include an official English translation.

*Applications will be reviewed on a rolling-basis. This opportunity will remain open to fill opportunities as they become available.

HHS Office and Location: A research opportunity is currently available with the Division of Home Visiting and Early Childhood Systems (DHVECS), Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB) at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) located in Rockville, Maryland.

This fellowship is designed to: 1) provide an environment where a highly qualified, productive candidate will be able to learn and develop analytical and leadership skills in public health, 2) contribute analytic support to strengthen the evaluation and research capacity of DHVECS, and 3) assist in promoting the use of data to improve health equity and reduce health disparities.

Research Project: The ORISE Fellow will collaborate with the Division of Home Visiting and Early Childhood Systems’ Office of the Director to support activity focused on the advancement of Health Equity and the strengthening of Early Childhood Systems.

Specifically, the fellow will build upon projects to develop a measurement and evaluation strategy to assess, continually improve and articulate the progress and impact of early childhood systems programs. This effort will result in an evaluability assessment and plan for ECS, recommendations for a menu of performance indicators and measures for ongoing program development and the development of related communications documents that will strengthen federal and state capacity to articulate early childhood systems progress and impact.

The fellow will also support efforts to improve collaboration across federal early childhood programs and with specific stakeholder groups such as health providers and families through conducting analyses of current collaborative efforts and supporting the development of strategies and resources to facilitate collaboration.

Examples of research the Fellow will contribute to support Early Childhood Systems work will include:

• Conduct literature reviews and stakeholder conversations to develop recommendations about measuring early childhood systems progress and impacts;
• Reviewing existing ECCS/MIECHV/TV and other documents with a focus on systems development, equity, collaboration and measurement strategies;
• Helping to coordinate focus groups with awardees and stakeholders to explore facilitators and barriers to collaboration and systems development;
• Participating in interagency meetings focused on improving coordination across programs and assist in developing supportive materials such as guidance documents, webinars and communications plans to promote collaboration;
• Conduct an evaluability assessment of the ECCS program and support the development of an evaluation plan; and
• Revise communications materials such as talking points, one-pagers and web-site informed by current data and measurement strategies.

The fellow will also support projects across the entire portfolio of early childhood systems and home visiting programs that explore qualitative and quantitative methods to measure advancements towards eliminating inequality and advancing health equity across the various program areas. This will be in collaboration with the Division’s Health Equity Advisor and the DHVECS Health Equity Workgroup.   

Examples of research activities include:

• Conducting literature reviews and analyses of secondary data to develop recommendations for program improvement directly related to reducing disparities and improving equity;
• Collecting promising practices around equity from early childhood and home visiting awardees and external collaborators;
• Assisting in the implementation of the Division’s Strategic Planning “Roadmap” and corresponding Health Equity Workgroup Action Plan;
• Participating in the refinement and piloting of the Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) Health Equity Framework in home visiting;
• Collaborate with the Health Equity Advisor on internal efforts to close the knowledge gap for DHVECS staff between equity intention, knowledge, and implementation; and
• Explore opportunities to advance integration of the parent and community voice into the DHVECS program portfolio.  

Learning Objectives: The ORISE Fellow in the DHVECS Office of the Director will benefit from this fellowship by gaining hands on experience in the following areas:

1. Ability to identify appropriate measurement and evaluation strategies that account for complex causality and systems level changes.
2. Ability to communicate data analysis results to multiple audiences, including awardees and the public.
3. Ability to understand a wide-array of federal programs, engage with program leadership and cultivate stakeholder engagement skills 
4. Ability to gain an in-depth understanding of the executive branch of government and the specific role of federal agencies in implementing legislation and policy. 
5. Ability to cultivate areas of expertise around continuous quality improvement, data, evaluation, research, policy implementation, and program oversight. 

Mentor(s): The mentor for this opportunity is Kasey Farrell (kfarrell@hrsa.gov). If you have questions about the nature of the research please contact the mentor(s).

Anticipated Appointment Start Date:  Start date is flexible and will depend on a variety of factors.

Appointment Length: The appointment will initially be for one year, but may be renewed upon recommendation of HHS and is contingent on the availability of funds.

Level of Participation: The appointment is full-time.

Participant Stipend: The participant will receive a monthly stipend commensurate with educational level and experience. A health insurance allowance and a travel/training allowance will also be provided. A relocation allowance will not be provided.

Citizenship Requirements: This opportunity is available to U.S. citizens and Lawful Permanent Residents (LPR) only.

ORISE Information: This program, administered by ORAU through its contract with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to manage the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE), was established through an interagency agreement between DOE and HHS. Participants do not become employees of HHS, DOE or the program administrator, and there are no employment-related benefits. Proof of health insurance is required for participation in this program. Health insurance can be obtained through ORISE.

The successful applicant(s) will be required to comply with Environmental, Safety and Health (ES&H) requirements of the hosting facility, including but not limited to, COVID-19 requirements (e.g. facial covering, physical distancing, testing, vaccination).

Questions: Please visit our Program Website. After reading, if you have additional questions about the application process please email HHSrpp@orau.org and include the reference code for this opportunity.

The qualified candidate should be currently pursuing or have received a master’s or doctoral degree in one of the relevant fields. Degree must have been received within the past five years.

Preferred skills: 

• Demonstrated ability to provide research expertise across a range of public health topics with a particular emphasis on reducing health disparities and advancing health equity.
• Demonstrated proficiency in the application of quantitative and/or qualitative research methods and performance measurement tools.
• Demonstrated skills in applying research and data to inform program decisions.
• Demonstrated ability to participate in a research team in leadership and/or support roles.
• Strong oral and written communication skills, including experience presenting to diverse audiences, and developing high-quality reports and other written products.
• Strong critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, problem-solving, and time management skills.
• Experience managing programs or projects with multiple components

• Citizenship: LPR or U.S. Citizen
• Degree: Master's Degree or Doctoral Degree received within the last 60 months or currently pursuing.
• Discipline(s):
  • Life Health and Medical Sciences (3 )
  • Other Non-Science & Engineering (2 )
  • Social and Behavioral Sciences (4 )
• Veteran Status: Veterans Preference, degree received within the last 120 month(s).