Volunteer Research Assistant

Black Mental Health Matters Inc is a nonprofit organization advancing mental health awareness, resources, and support within Black communities through technology, media, and community programs. The Volunteer Research Assistant will conduct AI/ML mental health research, grants research, community program research, impact evaluation, survey and data analysis, and research for mental health journals and show topics.

Responsibilities:

• Research best practices, published literature, and case studies on AI/ML models used in mental health contexts (e.g., conversational AI, sentiment/risk detection, culturally-specific NLP applications)
• Support evaluation of open-source Small Language Models (SLMs) and fine-tuning approaches (e.g., LLaMA-based models, QLoRA/PEFT methods) for relevance to BMHM's mental health use cases
• Summarize findings on model safety, bias, and appropriateness for use with culturally specific and vulnerable populations
• Assist the AI/ML Engineering team by researching evaluation frameworks that help prevent hallucination or harmful outputs in mental health-focused models
• Track emerging tools, datasets, and academic research relevant to Black mental health and AI applications
• Identify and compile grant opportunities (foundation, corporate, and government) aligned with BMHM's mission and current programs
• Research eligibility requirements, deadlines, funding priorities, and application processes for prospective funders
• Maintain an organized, up-to-date grants pipeline/tracker for the team
• Support the drafting of grant research summaries and briefing documents for the Executive Producer and leadership team
• Research comparable organizations' funding models and successful grant strategies for reference
• Research best practices and existing models for community mental health programming, particularly within Black communities, to inform BMHM initiatives such as Built to Heal
• Support the design and evaluation of BMHM programs and initiatives — including Built to Heal and other flagship programs — with relevant data, statistics, and comparable case studies
• Compile research on mental health outcomes, disparities, and needs specific to the communities BMHM serves through Built to Heal and related programming
• Assist in developing surveys, evaluation frameworks, or feedback tools to help measure the impact of Built to Heal and other community programs
• Prepare clear, concise research summaries and briefs for internal program planning discussions
• Design and administer audience and viewer surveys (pre-show, post-episode, and season-level) to assess the impact of The BMHM Show, The BMHM Report, and Built to Heal on mental health awareness, attitudes, and help-seeking behavior
• Develop data collection tools and protocols — including surveys, feedback forms, and structured interview guides — to capture both quantitative and qualitative audience insights across BMHM's programs
• Collect and organize impact data from multiple sources, including audience surveys, social media engagement, YouTube/streaming analytics, and community feedback channels for The BMHM Show, The BMHM Report, and Built to Heal
• Clean, analyze, and interpret survey and engagement data to identify trends, knowledge/attitude shifts, and areas for content or program improvement
• Prepare episode-level, report-level, and program-level impact summaries and dashboards for the Executive Producer and leadership team, translating data into clear, actionable findings
• Collaborate with the production and programs teams to incorporate evaluation findings and audience feedback into future episode planning, Built to Heal program design, and topic selection
• Maintain a longitudinal tracker of impact metrics across BMHM's programs to support grant reporting and organizational strategy
• Monitor and review peer-reviewed mental health research journals and academic publications for findings relevant to Black mental health, BMHM's programming, and The BMHM Report
• Research and propose timely, culturally relevant topics for upcoming BMHM Show episodes (Panel and One-on-One formats) and The BMHM Report segments, grounded in current published research
• Compile background research briefs on each topic, citing relevant journal articles, statistics, and community context, for hosts, producers, and BMHM Report fellows
• Research potential guests, specialists, and subject-matter experts aligned with proposed topics and published research areas
• Maintain an organized reference library/tracker of relevant journal articles and studies for ongoing use by the production, programs, and BMHM Report teams
• Support fact-checking and source verification for claims or statistics used in show scripts, The BMHM Report segments, and promotional content, citing published research where applicable