Postdoctoral Scholar - Violence Prevention Research - Dept of Social & Behavioral Sciences

At VCU, we take pride in our deep commitment to our postdoctoral community. In 2026, the National Postdoctoral Association (NPA) named VCU as one of only 12 recipients of its inaugural Institutional Policy Awards, in recognition of our transformative efforts to elevate quality of life and workplace equity for postdocs.

VCU postdocs are Virginia state employees, with benefits mirroring 12-month faculty. We adhere closely to the NPA’s guidelines for best practices in postdoc training. We work closely with our local NPA chapter, the VCU Postdoc Association, to make this a welcoming and productive place to complete your training!

Position Summary:

• →Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree in psychology, public health, behavioral science, developmental science, neuroscience, criminology, or a closely related field by the position start date.
• →Research interests relevant to violence, suicide, developmental psychopathology, behavioral health, prevention science, or a closely related area.
• →Demonstrated scientific writing expertise, evidenced by peer-reviewed publications.
• →Evidence of the ability to lead or make substantial contributions to scientific manuscripts.
• →Strong quantitative research skills and experience analyzing behavioral, clinical, or public health data.
• →Experience using statistical software such as R, SPSS, SAS, Stata, Mplus, or comparable analytic platforms.
• →Strong understanding of research design and quantitative methodology.
• →Excellent organizational and project-management skills.
• →Excellent interpersonal and collaborative skills.
• →Ability to work effectively both independently and within multidisciplinary research teams.
• →Demonstrated experience working in and fostering an environment of respect, professionalism and civility with a population of faculty, staff, and students from all backgrounds and experiences, or a commitment to do so as a post doc at VCU. 

• Research expertise in suicide, suicidal thoughts and behaviors, or self-directed violence.
• Research experience in gun violence, firearm-related injury, interpersonal violence, aggression, or violence prevention.
• Research experience involving conduct disorder, antisocial behavior, externalizing psychopathology, or related developmental processes.
• Experience or strong interest in psychophysiology, including measures such as electrodermal activity, heart rate, heart-rate variability, or related physiological methods.
• Experience incorporating physiological and behavioral measures to investigate mechanisms underlying emotion, threat processing, behavioral regulation, or psychopathology.
• Experience using technology in behavioral health, public health, or intervention research, including virtual reality, mobile or digital health technologies, wearable sensors, ecological momentary assessment, or related approaches.
• Experience with longitudinal, experimental, clinical, community-based, or intervention research.