05/22/2026
Behind any published academic paper is an army of research assistants (RAs) who help aggregate, organize and shape the research itself. At CMU, research assistant Rachel Neufeld and research coordinator Kayden Brown play an important role in the work being led by Dr. Heather Campbell-Enns, Canada Research Chair in Families and Aging and Associate Professor of Psychology. For Campbell-Enns, RAs are collaborators in the research process, not simply assistants completing assigned tasks.
"They are not just worker bees," she says. "The research is their work too."
From cleaning interview transcripts to coding qualitative data and helping identify emerging themes, RAs at CMU are deeply involved in projects examining dementia care and family caregiving. They get to help shape meaningful research that is doing more than building résumés, it's shaping how they see research, collaboration, and their future careers.
As part of Research Month at CMU, stories throughout May are highlighting the people, partnerships, and projects shaping research across the university.
Read the full story here: https://ow.ly/Xb0j50Z2Vgy