Applied Research Fellowship

Summer 2024 project: Assessing migration and displacement

King County has experienced dramatic changes in the size, the geographic distribution, and the demographic makeup of its population over the past decade. Economic growth and migration influxes have driven these changes, which have led to corresponding increases in property values and rental rates. For many, this has led to financial precarity as rents and mortgages make up a larger portion of income. For some, this has led to housing insecurity or homelessness. As a result, understanding the relationship between population growth, housing demand and housing supply is crucial as King County works to address its housing crisis.

The Summer 2024 Population Health Applied Research Fellowship team will work closely with the King County Demographer and an epidemiologist at the Assessment, Policy Development, and Evaluation Unit at Public Health – Seattle & King County to explore longitudinal business-level data and quantify the opening, closing and tenure of businesses across the county from 1997 – 2022. The team will build on the work of previous fellows to explore business changes by employee size, business type, and whether the company is publicly or privately owned. They will also examine the spatial distribution of business closures and openings across King County, placing that data in the context of other demographic characteristics.

Understanding indicator trends across time and space, and how those associated trends vary based on neighborhood context, can offer useful insights for policymakers and future resource allocations. Last summer’s fellowship assessed the utility of Data Axle Consumer Data in measuring internal migration within King County. This summer’s fellows will expand this study of Data Axle’s utility by using the Business Data and comparing it to current data sets King County uses. This research will enlighten stakeholders to potential impacts on business stability and diversity amongst communities in King County over time. The team will provide recommendations and next steps from findings to inform future programming and policies to address how King County supports communities, small businesses and their employees.

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 $20 for 19.5 hours/week for 10 weeks.

Timeline

• Applications are due by 12 p.m. (Pacific) Friday, March 29, 2024.
• Applicants will be notified whether they are invited to interview for the fellowship positions by April 3, 2024.
• Interviews will take place the week of April 8, 2024.
• Candidates will be notified about fellowship offers by mid-April, 2024.
• Fellowships are for a 10-week period over the summer, starting June 17, 2024 and ending August 23, 2024.

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.