Assistant Professor of Research

Job Description:

Kansas College of Osteopathic Medicine is seeking a highly collaborative, productive, and mission-driven Assistant Professor of Research to help expand a strong culture of scholarship across the institution.

This is a hands-on, output-driven position for someone who thrives on mentoring others, building research pipelines, and helping students and faculty turn good ideas into meaningful scholarly work. The person in this role will partner closely with medical students, clinical faculty, and community collaborators to develop feasible, rigorous, and publishable projects that move efficiently from concept to completion.

This is not a purely theoretical research role. It is a high-engagement faculty position centered on daily mentorship, project momentum, and tangible academic outcomes. The ideal candidate will be someone who can manage multiple concurrent projects, provide strong methodological guidance, and consistently help others produce abstracts, posters, manuscripts, and grant-ready ideas.

Why This Role Matters

This position is designed to strengthen the institution’s research infrastructure by expanding mentorship capacity, increasing scholarly productivity, and supporting student and faculty success. The individual in this role will play a central part in building and sustaining an active pipeline of scholarships across the medical school.

Projects may include case reports, systematic and scoping reviews, retrospective chart reviews, pilot studies, survey-based studies, quality improvement initiatives, and community-based or population health research.

SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIES:

Mentor students and faculty through the full research process
Provide hands-on support across all phases of scholarship, including:

• refining research questions
• selecting study designs
• preparing IRB applications
• coordinating data collection
• supporting analysis and interpretation
• developing abstracts and posters
• drafting and revising manuscripts
• guiding journal submission and dissemination

Keep projects moving
Manage multiple small-scale research and scholarly projects at once, helping ensure that promising ideas do not stall and that teams continue making measurable progress toward presentation and publication.

Build scholarly output
Contribute to an institutional culture that values productivity, rigor, and follow-through by helping generate:

• peer-reviewed publications
• conference presentations
• posters
• faculty and student scholarly products
• grant-ready project concepts

Support grant development
Assist with internal and external grant development and help students and faculty shape scholarly ideas into fundable projects when appropriate.

Contribute to teaching
Carry a modest teaching role based on expertise and interest. Teaching may include lectures, workshops, small-group sessions, or other educational activities related to research and scholarship within the medical school curriculum.

The Ideal Candidate

The ideal candidate is a faculty member who is:

• deeply collaborative and student-centered
• highly organized and able to manage multiple active projects
• comfortable working in an applied, fast-moving academic environment
• skilled at translating ideas into feasible studies
• committed to helping students and faculty publish their work
• motivated by impact, mentorship, and institutional growth

This role is especially well suited for someone who enjoys the day-to-day work of mentoring others and helping them produce meaningful scholarships, rather than focusing solely on an independent research agenda.

QUALIFICATION(S):

Required Qualifications

• PhD in Public Health, Epidemiology, Population Health, Health Services Research, Biostatistics, Statistics, Clinical Research, Community or Global Health, Implementation Science, Biomedical or Health Informatics, Medical Sociology, Behavioral Health, Health Policy, Health Professions Education, Clinical and Translational Science, or another closely related discipline relevant to applied health research and scholarship
• Demonstrated scholarly productivity, including peer-reviewed publications and presentations
• Experience mentoring students, trainees, or junior faculty in research or scholarly activity
• Demonstrated ability to independently manage multiple small-scale research projects annually
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Ability to work collaboratively across disciplines

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working with medical students or in academic medicine
• Experience mentoring clinical faculty in research or scholarly activity
• Experience with IRB submissions, study design, data analysis, manuscript development, and journal submission
• Experience in rural health, underserved populations, community-based research, or health outcomes research
• Experience contributing to grant development and external funding efforts
• Prior teaching experience relevant to the medical school curriculum

KEY COMPETENCIES:

• applied research design and execution
• student mentorship and faculty coaching
• manuscript and abstract development
• project management and accountability
• scholarly productivity
• grant development support
• teaching in research-related content areas

Opportunity for Impact

The addition of this role will strengthen student support, expand faculty scholarship, increase institutional research output, enhance grant development capacity, and help advance strategic and accreditation-related goals.

For the right candidate, this is an opportunity to play a meaningful role in shaping the next generation of physician-scholars while helping build a stronger, more productive research culture across the institution.

The essential physical and mental requirements described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the job's essential functions. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

DISCLAIMER:

The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by people assigned to this classification. They are not to be construed as an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties, and skills required of personnel so classified. All personnel may be required to perform duties outside of their normal responsibilities from time to time, as needed.

It is the policy of Kansas Health Science University (KHSU)-Kansas College of Osteopathic Medicine (KansasCOM) not to discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religion, religious creed, national origin, ancestry, age, genetic information, marital status, military or veteran status, physical or mental disability, medical condition, pregnancy, childbirth and any medical condition related to pregnancy or childbirth or any other basis protected by federal, state or local law, ordinance or regulation. KHSU-KansasCOM is committed to complying with all applicable laws regarding equal employment opportunities. KHSU-KansasCOM strives to create and maintain a work environment in which people are treated with dignity, decency, and respect. All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply.

Kansas Health Science University offers a generous compensation and benefits package, as well as the opportunity to work for a leader in the field of education. Some of our key benefits include: generous paid time-off, medical and dental coverage, company-paid life and disability insurance, retirement plan with employer contribution, multiple flexible spending accounts (FSA), tuition reimbursement, professional development, and regular employee appreciation events.

Kansas Health Science University is an Equal Opportunity Employer.