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Assistant Professor - Hispanic Health Disparities (6 Positions)
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Position Number: 4730931
Location: El Paso, TX
Position Type: Health - Healthcare Administration

Assistant Professor - Hispanic Health Disparities (6 Positions)

About The University of Texas at El Paso:

The University of Texas at El Paso is a Carnegie R1 and Community Engaged research university at the heart of the U.S.-Mexico border region. We advance discovery of public value and positively impact the health, culture, education, and economy of the community we serve. UTEP enrolls 24,000 students, 84% of whom are Hispanic, and half of whom are the first in their families to attend college. UTEP is one of the major economic engines in the region, adding more than $1.4 billion to the local economy annually.

El Paso's active arts and culture community features the state's longest-running symphony orchestra, a nationally recognized chamber music festival, art galleries, museums, and a full schedule of seasonal events and festivals. UTEP adds to the arts and entertainment scene with an award-winning dinner theater, music and dance productions, contemporary and student art galleries, and a natural history museum.

For sports fans, the UTEP Miners offer exciting Division I college athletics. Southwest University Park, located a mile away in downtown El Paso, is home to the El Paso Chihuahuas, the Triple-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres, and the El Paso Locomotive, a professional soccer team founded in 2019.

El Paso County is a highly livable, bi-cultural community of more than 850,000 people that offers affordable homes and is the safest city in the U.S. with a population of over 500,000. Shielded by mountains on three sides, El Paso enjoys more than 300 days of sunshine annually and a dry climate, making it possible to engage in outdoor activities year-round. The city of El Paso adjoins both the state of New Mexico and the country of Mexico; it is one of the largest international communities in the world. See Destination El Paso | El Paso, Texas (visitelpaso.com) for more information.

Job Description:

The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is recruiting a cohort of six tenure-track Assistant Professors who will advance knowledge in areas related to Hispanic health disparities. The positions are part of the NIH-funded Faculty Institutional Recruitment for Sustainable Transformation (FIRST) grant (https://commonfund.nih.gov/FIRST) awarded to UTEP. The UTEP FIRST program goals are: (1) fostering sustainable institutional culture change; (2) promoting institutional inclusive excellence by hiring a diverse cohort of new faculty; and (3) supporting faculty development, mentoring, sponsorship, and promotion.

Addressing and eventually eliminating disparities within Hispanic communities requires understanding the intersection of numerous variables at multiple levels of integration. UTEP is committed to expanding interdisciplinary research initiatives that include multiple areas of research foci and entail collaborations across campus to study the health of Hispanic communities. The framework of the UTEP FIRST program is to hire a cohort of faculty whose expertise spans a range of domains. Participating UTEP colleges and schools include:

College of Business
College of Education
College of Engineering
College of Health Sciences
College of Liberal Arts
College of Nursing
School of Pharmacy
College of Science

FIRST faculty will receive competitive salary and startup packages, as well as 75% protected research time for the duration of the NIH FIRST award. They will also be provided investigative space in the new UTEP interdisciplinary research building (IDRB), which houses open-concept laboratories and state-of-the-art facilities. FIRST faculty will have the opportunity to interact with senior investigators in a highly collaborative interdisciplinary environment. They will benefit from a support system involving multiple mentorship touchpoints and platforms including one-on-one mentoring with sponsors, advocates, and grant writing coaches. FIRST faculty will be guided by institutional and Faculty Development Core leaders and invited to join a community of practice aligned with their interests. Tailored mentoring will ensure that each faculty member builds a network of support to foster their independent research program in a clear, impactful, and competitive manner to address their individual and cohort needs. Notably, FIRST faculty will engage in a series of integrated activities that will propel them from early-stage investigators to established principal investigators and, ultimately, to emergent institutional leaders.

UTEP is a Carnegie R1 research intensive, Hispanic-serving institution with a prominent focus on addressing health disparities and health equity for the predominately Hispanic demographic living on the United States-Mexico border. The UTEP Border Biomedical Research Center, supported by the National Institutes of Health Research Centers in Minority Institutions (NIH RCMI) Program, has for many years been the focal point for biomedical research at UTEP, and provides support through state-of-the-art core facilities to UTEP biomedical researchers. Importantly, UTEP has aggressively expanded biomedical research capacity in recent years through the development of a new building focused on interdisciplinary research, enhanced outreach to hospital systems in the city and surrounding area, building of a new NIH-funded Imaging and Behavioral Neuroscience Laboratory, development of a Center for Integrative and Translational Research that supports health disparities research initiatives, and collaborations with Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in El Paso and the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. UTEP is classified as a Carnegie Community Engaged Institution, which demonstrates the university's commitment to forming sustainable partnerships and collaborations to address the expressed needs of the community, facilitating community based participatory research as well as disseminating findings to vested stakeholders.

Requirements:

Required Qualifications

Holds a PhD, MD/PhD, PharmD, DrPH, or other doctoral degree at the time of appointment.
Has not held a prior tenure-track position but may have held a non-tenure track Research Assistant Professor position.
Satisfies the NIH Early-Stage Investigator criteria (https://grants.nih.gov/policy/early-stage/index.htm), including completing their terminal degree within the past 10 years and not having already been the Principal Investigator or Program Director on a substantial NIH independent research award. comparable to an R01.
Conducts research and scholarly work that contributes to knowledge about understanding and reducing Hispanic health disparities.

Preferred Qualifications

Evidence of a commitment to provide an excellent education for all students.
Strong publication record in areas related, or with potential relation, to Hispanic health disparities research.
Research in an area appropriate for NIH funding.

Additional Information:

In keeping with its access, excellence, and impact mission, The University of Texas at El Paso is committed to an open, diverse, and inclusive learning and working environment that honors the talents, respects the differences, and nurtures the growth and development of all. We seek to attract faculty and staff who share our commitment.

The University of Texas at El Paso is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. The University does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, religion, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, sexual orientation, or gender identity in employment or the provision of services in accordance with state and federal law. Discrimination on the basis of sex includes an employee's or prospective employee's right to be free from sexual harassment under Title IX of the Higher Education Amendments of 1972. Inquiries-including the filing of a Formal Complaint or reporting an incident-about the application of Title IX may be referred to the Title IX Coordinator, who can be reached by phone at (915) 747-8358, by email at titleix@utep.edu, or by mail at 500 W. University Ave., El Paso, TX, Kelly Hall, Room 312.

For accommodation information for employees and applicants with disabilities, please contact UTEP's Equal Opportunity Office at eoaa@utep.edu.

Application Instructions:

Candidates are encouraged to apply by November 30, 2023 to ensure full consideration. Positions will remain open until filled.

Cover Letter (1-2 pages): Candidates should describe their suitability for the position by addressing their qualifications, experiences and contributions that elucidate their congruence with the UTEP institutional mission and strategic plan (https://www.utep.edu/strategic-plan/). In addition, candidates should indicate their preferred home department(s) and provide contact information for three professional references.
Curriculum Vitae
Research Statement (3 pages maximum, not including references): Candidates should summarize previous research experience and include short- and long-term research goals. They also should describe how their research plans are tied to potential NIH R01 and other funding opportunities (https://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/r01.htm).
Teaching Statement (2 pages maximum): Candidates should describe their teaching experience, their teaching philosophy, and overall pedagogical strategy. In addition to specifying courses they would like to teach, candidates should identify other areas of interest that would contribute to the course offerings of the preferred home departments. They should also describe their experiences in mentoring and/or student professional development.

For questions about the position, contact the Search Committee Co-Chairs, Drs. Michael Kenney or Ann Quiroz Gates at utepfirst@utep.edu.

To apply, visit https://utep.interviewexchange.com/jobofferdetails.jsp?JOBID=169183