About the Center for Mentoring ...
The Center for Mentoring serves as a central resource to support professional excellence by encouraging growth and development of faculty as mentors, scholars, and teachers. By becoming more effective mentors and mentees, faculty can strengthen professional interactions with colleagues, advance the mission of scholarship, and foster connections with students which prepare them for success at Pitt and for lives of impact beyond campus.
While some schools and departments have formalized (and sometimes rewarded) mentoring programs, more informal mentoring relationships are also critical success factors for many faculty. Sometimes the best mentors come from other departments, schools and institutions.
The Center for Mentoring hosts events throughout the year to help mentors, mentees, and administrators establish, improve, and evaluate mentorship programs that benefit all participants. The Mentoring Academy is a program comprised of a series of workshops held throughout the year which cover eight mentoring competencies. These sessions are facilitated by trained faculty mentors throughout the University.
The Center for Mentoring also hosts a number of mentoring resources available to University of Pittsburgh faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students, as well as providing opportunities for connections between mentors and mentees.
Mentoring Faculty
Both junior and senior faculty can benefit from mentoring. When you’re just beginning your career as a faculty member, you’ll undoubtedly have many questions, like:
- How do I navigate difficult conversations with my department chair?
- What is the best way to handle a student who I caught cheating in my class?
- How much time should I spend on service for my tenure and promotion package?
- What should I do to raise my teaching evaluation scores?
Getting insight from someone who has traveled this road before can be useful.
For more experienced faculty, there are rewards for serving as a mentor to new faculty. Some of the rewards include:
- Improving your own visibility in your field or department
- The personal satisfaction of helping another faculty member succeed
- Shaping the culture of your institution
- Improving the reputation of your department
- Laura Ann Fenimore, Professor, Acute & Tertiary Care, School of Nursing
- Laurie Kirsch, Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs, Development, and Diversity
- Audrey Murrell, Acting Dean, University Honors College and Professor of Business Administration, Psychology, Public and International Affairs
- Marnie Oakley, Senior Associate Dean for Clinical and Faculty Affairs, School of Dental Medicine
- Ann Robertson, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, Swanson School of Engineering
- Doris Rubio, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Clinical Research Education and Training, Health Sciences, and Director, Institute for Clinical Research Education.