Applied Research Fellowship

Summer 2025 project: Assessing the Accessibility of King County’s Neighborhood Parks

A vision of King County Parks is to have “parks, trails, and natural lands for all.” In particular, they “strive to provide public open spaces and recreation opportunities that maximize accessibility and are equitably distributed.” While King County is home to many neighborhood parks and green spaces, there is still work to be done to ensure all members of the public have the ability to get to and use these spaces.

The Summer 2025 Population Health Applied Research Fellowship team will work closely with the King County Demographer and King County Parks to assess the accessibility of our parks. The team will explore existing data provided by King County on the location of public lands and search for and acquire publicly available data on area demographics and transportation service. We will compare the spatial distribution of individuals with disabilities, youth, and schools to the spatial distribution of King County’s parks, their attributes, and modes of transportation. In addition, we will select one to two parks in urban, unincorporated King County for on the ground research and validation. In real time, our team will observe the physical and perceived accessibility of these parks, e.g. the smoothness of sidewalks and presence or absence of sidewalks and ramps to ensure members of the community can walk and roll safely. We will observe the quality of sight-lines around vegetation and the location and effectiveness of street lighting that promote safety.

Though quantitative data can provide useful information on the overall distribution of King County’s parks and the aggregate populations who use them, the data sources that exist do not tell us everything we need to know to determine a park meets the goal of maximizing accessibility for all of King County’s people. Deliverables will include a written report and presentation to our stakeholders. This project provides a unique opportunity for students to complement quantitative research methods with on-the-ground research to provide our King County stakeholders with valuable information about the existing state of the physical access networks around parks which, in turn, can help to prioritize investments in parks management and improvement to help ensure everyone in King County is served by green spaces.

Student eligibility

Graduate students at the master’s and doctoral levels and professional students from all UW schools and colleges are eligible to apply. Applicants must be enrolled in a degree-granting program at any UW campus (Seattle, Tacoma and Bothell) and not graduating in June.

All undergraduate students with junior- or senior-level status who are enrolled in a UW degree-granting program at any UW campus and will not be graduating in June are eligible to apply.

Students are currently expected to be available for in-person meetings during the fellowship.

Compensation

Graduate students will be paid an hourly Graduate Research Student Assistant summer rate for 20 hours/week over a period of 10 weeks. The undergraduate students will be paid an hourly rate of $21 for 19.5 hours/week for 10 weeks.

Timeline

• Applications are due by 12 p.m. (Pacific) Thursday, March 20, 2025.
• Applicants will be notified whether they are invited to interview for the fellowship positions by March 24, 2025.
• Interviews will take place the week of March 24, 2025.
• Candidates will be notified about fellowship offers by early April, 2025.
• Fellowships are for a 10-week period over the summer, starting June 16, 2025 and ending August 22, 2025.

Application instructions

All applicants must submit the following documents:

• Recent CV or resume
• Unofficial transcript
• One- to two-page cover letter outlining why you are interested in the fellowship program and how your skills will enable you to contribute to the success of the project
• One statement of support from a faculty member or other mentor who can provide examples of your research abilities, independent and professional approach to learning, and your collaborative and communicative skills.

Please combine the CV/resume, transcript, and cover letter into a single .pdf file and submit this file via email to pophlth@uw.edu. The subject line of the email should be, “Applied Research Fellowship.

Your statement of support must be emailed to pophlth@uw.edu directly by the person you are requesting this statement from. The subject line of the email should be, “Applied Research Fellowship” and reference your name.

Review criteria

Applications will be reviewed by representatives of the Population Health Initiative and the Center for Studies in Demography & Ecology. Candidates will be notified whether they have been selected to interview for the fellowship according to the published timeline.

Interviews with select candidates will be scheduled based on the dates listed in the timeline. Interviews will be for approximately 30 minutes, and the panel will consist of faculty and staff from the Population Health Initiative, the Center for Studies in Demography & Ecology and other departments or external partners as relevant.

Applicants will be selected based on the following criteria:

• Demonstrated technical skills in research methods, data entry, database management, data collection and/or analysis
• Some knowledge about, or experience working on, issues of social inequality, race, health or program evaluations
• Academic performance to date
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills
• Ability to work well within in a team environment

Questions

Please contact pophlth@uw.edu with questions regarding this fellowship program.