Postdoctoral Associate, Stony Brook University

Postdoctoral Associate

For more information and to apply, click here.

Required Qualifications (as evidenced by attached resume):
PhD in Psychology or foreign equivalent, in hand by 1/1/19. Experience designing and conducting research. Demonstrated expertise in evaluation of programs, interventions, or other aspects of implementation. Ability to communicate research results to both expert and non-expert audiences. Experience conducting trainings and/or presentations.

Preferred Qualifications:

PhD in Clinical, Community, Applied Development, or Applied Social Psychology, or a closely-related field of Psychology, in hand by 1/1/19. High levels of proficiency in quantitative, or mixed-methods social science or educational research. Experience with basic GLM-based statistical modeling (e.g., regression, multivariate statistics). Experience with study design associated with intervention or program development and refinement, including, but not limited to, additive, component control, catalytic, or parametric designs. Experience with data acquisition and analysis associated with intervention design or development. Prior grant experience and/or data reporting processes. Experience working across research disciplines. Proficiency in data and project management. Willingness to travel to evaluate and/or conduct workshops nationally and internationally. Experience teaching and/or facilitating workshops at the undergraduate, graduate, or post-graduate level. Participation in other diversity programs either as an undergraduate or graduate and demonstrated a commitment to promoting diversity in academe. Ability to work as part of a team.

Brief Description of Duties:
The Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science and the Social Competence and Treatment Lab at Stony Brook University jointly seeks a Postdoctoral Associate to advance science communication research and refine scientists’ understanding and application of effective communication skills through training.

The Alda Method® is an immersive, team-taught, face-to-face approach to communication skills training that combines improvisational theater-based techniques with communication strategies. This unique approach to communication training is designed to foster clear and vivid communication that can be communicated to diverse audiences with integrity and accuracy. Participants learn to step out of their comfort zones to fully engage in the communication process as both a sender and receiver of messages. This multidisciplinary approach to communication training helps scientists tap into innate connections that come alive naturally when they recall a passion for their work.

The Postdoctoral Associate will contribute to research designed to evaluate the effectiveness of the Alda Method®. Such evaluation can involve both formative and summative assessment, as well as component evaluation based upon the interests and expertise of the incumbent. The successful candidate will support the Alda Center’s commitment to advance an evidence-based science communication curriculum.

This Postdoctoral Research Associate will be jointly appointed in Dr. Matthew Lerner’s Social Competence and Treatment Lab and the Alda Center. This role will permit the incumbent to integrate into both environments, capitalizing on the skills and resources available in each. Additionally, working in collaboration with Alda Center faculty and staff, the successful candidate will be responsible for conducting new research, analyzing data, and testing curriculum elements in the Alda Center’s on-the-road-workshops, presenting work at conferences, preparing publications, and collaborating on grant proposals. The incumbent will receive support to become Alda Certified Instructor and implement Alda Method® trainings in the U.S. and abroad. This unique training experience will enable the postdoc to conduct translational science communication research. The candidate may also teach up to three credits per semester depending on need and interest and may also help to train new Alda Certified Instructors. Conduct research on effective communication, including science communication, including conducting literature reviews, establishing and implementing study procedures, collecting and analyzing data.