The Postdoctoral Fellowship in Child Health Equity through the Department of Pediatrics/Hassenfeld Institute is made possible through the generous support of the Hassenfeld family. We invite applications for a 1-2 year postdoctoral research fellowship focused on child health disparities. We seek applicants with an interest in clinical and health services research and child health who wish to pursue an academic career. One or two applicants will be chosen to participate in the program. Postdoctoral fellowships can either involve full-time research training years or be integrated as a more in-depth research component within an established clinical fellowship program at Brown (candidates will need to separately be accepted into those training programs). While the focus of the program is on child health disparities, we acknowledge the inextricable link between child, parent, and family health; therefore, we welcome fellows with related interests.
The fellowship program prepares post-residency physicians, behavioral scientists, and scholars from other relevant disciplines to conduct independent research in the area of child health. The primary goal of the program is to develop fellows’ knowledge base and skills to begin an independent research career within their chosen area of emphasis. Specific skills will include:
- A critical understanding of the literature and current issues in the field; and
- The ability to independently develop a specific research project.
There are different models for these programs depending on the nature of the fellow’s training. Our Research Training Program in Child Health Disparities can support the following options:
- A traditional two-year research post-doctoral fellowship.
- A research year initiated on the completion of an existing clinical fellowship.
- Research fellowship training that is integrated into an existing clinical fellowship with a proportion of training provided over the course of the final two years.
The program includes didactic work focused on grant writing, experimental design, research techniques, and statistical analyses, with specific areas tailored to the candidate’s area of specialization. Training and focus on health equity and application of the NIMHD Health Disparities Framework into all aspects of research will be provided. A mentor who shares similar research interests will be identified to support specified research and career training objectives developed early on during the post-doctoral training experience. Participating faculty mentors have expertise in a range of areas including: 1) pediatric psychology/ psychiatry with an emphasis on child mental health; 2) maternal health; 3) health disparities; 4) implementation science; 5) health services research; 6) intervention development and clinical trials; and 7) community-based participatory research.
Qualifications
- Ph.D. or PsyD, or
- MD/DO with completed residency training
Research Training
Postdoctoral fellows decide on the appropriate research activity in conjunction with their faculty mentor early on during the training experience. Examples of appropriate activities include generating a project from the supervisor’s existing database; designing and implementing a new study; publishing work on projects begun prior to the fellowship including one’s dissertation, and writing a grant application. All individualized training activities for postdoctoral fellows must include explicit goals and activities for this research component.
Didactic Training
Most postdoctoral fellows participate in two to five hours of didactics per week. A small sample of didactic requirements are as follows:
- Grant Writing Seminars
- Research Methods Seminar including design, statistical approaches and research ethics
- Child Health Disparities and Health Equity
Mentorship and Evaluation
Postdoctoral fellows will develop annual goals with their primary research mentor and progress will be reviewed twice a year. It is the responsibility of the primary mentor to monitor that the fellow’s research goals are being met, and that research opportunities reasonably allow for these goals to be achieved. Opportunities for evaluation of the candidate’s progress and the mentorship will be provided every 6 and 12 months with feedback reviewed from the Program’s oversight committee.
Application Process
There are four parts to this application. All materials should be emailed to hassenfeldinstitute@brown.edu. Once we have all the materials, your application will be reviewed, and we will contact you about next steps including interviews.
- Standard application - please complete as directed.
- Current resume or CV, including awards, honors, and publications
- Personal statement of up to two pages describing the reason for your interest in this program, including your career goals and how these can be facilitated by acceptance into the fellowship, how your past experiences, including prior research and training, influenced your decision to apply, and a description of your specific interest in child health equity research.
- Two letters of recommendation. The names of two people who will submit a letter of support on behalf of the applicant (the letter of support must be emailed directly by the letter writer to hassenfeldinstitute@brown.edu from their institutional email). The forms to give your letter writers are included in the standard application form linked below.