Civic Science Fellow

POSITION SUMMARY

The Center for Black Excellence and Culture (CBEC) is recruiting a 2026-2028 Civic Science Fellow for our community-university research project with the Center for Healthy Minds (CHM) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The Fellow will co-develop civically oriented scholarship focused on understanding and improving the flourishing and well-being of Black members of the Greater Madison, Wisconsin area. The fellowship provides a unique opportunity to contribute focused attention and expertise on community relationships, community-based knowledge generation, and community inspired model building - while also contributing to the development of an emerging scholar whose professional commitment is to engage in rigorous scholarship that makes a difference in the well-being and flourishing of Black communities.

The Civic Science Fellow will provide leadership in structuring and implementing goal focused activities and products in collaboration with key community and science partners. The goals of the Fellowship are to strengthen relationships between academic research communities and the broader Black communities locally; increase creating and dissemination of community led research; and increase field knowledge of community led science models. Our expected outcomes for the Fellow during the 18-month period are greater community engagement, stronger relationships between researchers and communities, a foundational research framework for the Center for Black Excellence and Culture to build from, the contours of a national model of community inspired science and research, and written products (toolkit, and scholarly publication).

In this position, the Fellow will work with the CBEC and CHM community-university project teams, and with community partners, R1 University faculty and staff, non-profits, and more to implement a research project with impact in the community. The Fellow will work with community and UW-Madison campus resources and outreach offices to support the project as needed.

THE COMMUNITY-UNIVERSITY PARTNERSHIP FRAMEWORK

The partnership between the Center for Black Excellence and Culture and the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin – Madison represents an intentional effort to bring evidence-based practices, neuroscience, and behavioral health research into dialogue with Black voices. The community-university partnership is an effort to expand knowledge and increase opportunities for Black members of communities to flourish in the Greater Madison area and beyond. The partnership has continued to evolve, and discourse has led to the shared goal of advancing community led science, basing it in and on the cultural knowledge and wisdom embedded within the Black community. The Fellow will help translate cutting-edge science into community relevance and help ensure that scientific inquiry is shaped by Black insight rather than merely applied to Black populations.

Our expected outcomes for the Fellow include greater community leadership and engagement with community focused scholarship, stronger relationships between researchers and Black communities, a foundational research framework for the Center for Black Excellence and Culture to build from, the contours of a national model of community inspired science and research, and written products (reports, scholarly publication, etc.).

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Manage and implement all aspects of a community-university research project
• Implement research questions developed by the CBEC and CHM community-university teams
• Collect and analyze qualitative and quantitative data
• Conduct literature reviews, (co-)author publications, and disseminate information across audiences
• Participation in the Civic Science Fellow Cohort Activities
• Develop infrastructure for future expansion of the community work

WORK ENVIRONMENT & BENEFITS

• Based at the Center for Black Excellence and Culture in Madison, WI with an affiliation with the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
• Grant funded position with a competitive annual salary.
• 18 month appointment from September 2026 - March 2028.
• Comprehensive benefits package, including health, dental, and vision insurance; paid time off; and professional development support.
• Collaborative and mission-driven workplace culture.
• Opportunity to help shape and steward a first-of-its-kind cultural institution dedicated to Black excellence.
• Opportunity for travel relocation stipend.

QUALIFICATIONS

Requirements:

• PhD (disciplines including, but not limited to social science, public health, communication, sociology, public policy, psychology, neuroscience, etc.)
• Demonstrated organizational and project management skills
• Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively with Black communities.
• Ability to conduct high quality community-engaged and/or community participatory research.
• Experience with research implementation and dissemination and ability to work independently.
• Demonstrated ability to produce tangible research artifacts such documents and/or materials for community and public audiences, scholarly papers, conference presentations.
• Ability to collect and analyze qualitative data from listening sessions, focus groups, interviews. Familiarity with one or more qualitative analysis software.
• Ability to collect and analyze quantitative data. Familiarity with one or more quantitative analysis software.
• Statistical analysis experience.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities Required:

• Practice and understanding of community scientist or civic scientist models
• Ability to reference co-facilitation, and co-design engagement models
• Group facilitation
• Excellent written and verbal communication, especially ability to communicate with lay audiences
• Ability to work independently and in a team environment, and develop positive relationships across communities
• Familiarity with Google and Box platforms