Assistant or Associate Professor in Health Services Research and Healthcare Innovation

About the Role

The Department of Nutrition and Public Health Sciences at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, seeks an innovative scholar for a nine-month, tenure-track faculty position at the Assistant or Associate Professor level. This role is part of an interdisciplinary faculty research cluster in partnership with River Valley Health (RVH), a large federally qualified health center (FQHC) network. The position offers an exceptional environment for embedded research focused on chronic disease prevention and management, healthcare delivery, implementation, and population health within real-world clinical settings.

Key Responsibilities

• Collaboratively develop a coordinated and externally funded research portfolio addressing priorities identified with RVH.
• Establish sustained working relationships with RVH leadership, clinicians, staff, and patients.
• Contribute complementary expertise in healthcare delivery, clinical systems, informatics, health services research, and/or real-world data.
• Participate in the development, implementation, and evaluation of interventions across the RVH network.
• Collaborate with colleagues across the University of Tennessee in nutrition, public health, kinesiology, health sciences, informatics, and related disciplines.
• Mentor undergraduate and graduate students.
• Contribute to the Department’s teaching mission in areas aligned with the candidate’s expertise.

Requirements & Tech Stack

• Doctoral degree in public health, health services research, health policy or management, clinical or biomedical informatics, nursing, psychology, medicine, pharmacy, or a closely related field.
• Evidence of a program of scholarship relevant to health services research, healthcare delivery, healthcare innovation, population health, clinical informatics, implementation science, or related areas.
• A research program that provides expertise complementary to the existing cluster strengths.
• Demonstrated interest in conducting collaborative, embedded research within healthcare delivery systems.
• Ability and willingness to work as part of an interdisciplinary faculty research team and in sustained partnership with a healthcare organization.
• Commitment to high-quality teaching and mentorship.

Qualifications

• For appointment at the Assistant Professor level:
• Evidence of a developing independent research program.
• Strong potential to obtain external research funding appropriate to career stage.
• For appointment at the Associate Professor level:
• Established independent program of research with a sustained record of scholarly productivity.
• Demonstrated success in obtaining external research funding.
• Record of research, teaching, and mentorship appropriate for appointment at the Associate Professor level.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience conducting research embedded within primary care or healthcare delivery systems.

• Experience working with FQHCs, safety-net healthcare systems, rural populations, or other community-based healthcare organizations.

• Expertise using electronic health record, clinical, administrative, or other real-world healthcare data for research.

• Experience with pragmatic trials, implementation studies, quality improvement, or learning health system approaches.

• Expertise that expands the cluster into areas such as healthcare delivery, clinical systems, informatics, health services research, organizational change, or another complementary area.

• Research addressing chronic disease prevention and management, cardiometabolic health, or health-related social needs.

• Experience integrating digital health, patient-generated health data, clinical decision support, or other technologies into healthcare delivery.

• Clinical licensure or eligibility for clinical credentialing within healthcare settings.

• Demonstrated ability to build research collaboratively with healthcare-system leaders, clinicians, staff, patients, and community partners.

• Research areas may include: Health services and healthcare delivery research; Healthcare innovation and practice transformation; Population health and learning health systems; Clinical or population health informatics; Electronic health records and other real-world clinical data; Pragmatic and embedded clinical trials; Dissemination and implementation science; Clinical workflow and organizational change; Health information technology, interoperability, and clinical decision support; Patient-generated health data, remote monitoring, and digital health; Integration of evidence-based interventions into routine clinical care; Healthcare-community linkages and community resource referral; Prevention and management of cardiometabolic and other chronic diseases; Food is Medicine and interventions addressing health-related social needs; Rural health, primary care, FQHCs, and safety-net healthcare delivery.

• Candidates with clinical backgrounds bridging public health research with clinical operations and healthcare delivery are particularly encouraged. Relevant clinical backgrounds may include nursing or advanced practice nursing, medicine, psychology, pharmacy, or other health professions. Non-clinical backgrounds may be considered with substantial expertise in embedded health services research and collaborative work within healthcare systems.