Faculty Mentorship Program

The Department’s commitment to research and research training continues in its support for developing fellows and junior faculty; a formal program of mentoring its faculty on a research or clinician educator tract. The program is a component of a comprehensive faculty career development program, with a mentoring process distinct from annual evaluation process.

The program is inclusive of tenure-track and fixed-term faculty and addresses the needs of specific groups (e.g. assistant vs. associate professors, women, underrepresented in medicine). Two faculty, Drs. Girdler and Gaynes, direct the program and serve as mentor coordinators who facilitate effective mentor/mentee relationships (junior and mid-level faculty) and reassignment of mentors, and mentees are reviewed annually to assess their progression along a career development plan.

The mentoring process provides explicit directions on the timing of mentoring meetings, and includes orientation to mentoring process, expecta­tions for mentors/mentees, and is inclusive of the various types of mentoring: personal development, professional development, skill development, academic career guid­ance, and research. The program has become a model for both the School of Medicine and the University.