Mentoring
"Mentorship is a professional, working alliance in which individuals work together over time to support the personal and professional growth, development, and success of the relational partners through the provision of career and psychosocial support." [1]
Working with Graduate Students: A Mentoring Guide
UMD Individual Development Plan for Postdoctoral Associates, Scholars, and Fellows
Creating an Individual Development Plan (IDP) helps postdocs and their mentors assess skills, identify short and long term goals, and determine a plan for achieving research, professional, and career goals.
This document should be used during meetings with faculty mentors and their trainees as a means to foster communication to ensure the postdoc articulates his/her professional development needs and the faculty mentor provides feedback on progress and expectations.
Download your IDP here (.pdf).
Appropriate Treatment of Research Trainees (AToRT)
In 2021, a working group of the AAMC GREAT developed a guide to promote inclusive and supportive training environments for graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. The Appropriate Treatment of Research Trainees (AToRT) describes the shared principles that are essential for positive training environments, calls out behaviors that are incompatible with these principles, and presents a framework for how institutions can address inappropriate treatment when it occurs.
National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN)
To address the lack of diversity in the biomedical research workforce, the NIH launched a broad, trans-institutional strategy in 2014, including the Diversity Program Consortium (DPC). The overarching goal of the DPC is to develop, implement, assess, and disseminate innovative and effective approaches to engaging, training, and mentoring students; enhancing faculty development; and strengthening institutional research training infrastructure to enhance the participation and persistence of individuals from underrepresented backgrounds in biomedical research careers. Through our national network, we implement and disseminate innovative, evidence-based best practices to improve mentoring relationships at institutions across the country.
Check the NRMN website and the article Culturally aware mentorship: Lasting impacts of a novel intervention on academic administrators and faculty.
National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (NCFDD)
The National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity (NCFDD) is an independent professional development, training, and mentoring community of faculty, postdocs, & graduate students from over 450 colleges and universities (check the NCFDD website).
The NCFDD offers a Mentoring Map that Postdocs can use in order to asses the areas where they need assistance, determine what mentors they already have to help in certain areas, and identify the areas where they may need new mentors. Download the NCFDD Mentoring Map here.
Postdoctoral Mentoring Plan Template
An individual Postdoctoral Mentoring Plan will be established between every Postdoctoral Fellow and their mentor. This template will serve as a guiding thread to help establish the short- and long-term goals for the Postdoctoral Fellows and the related activities and professional development to ensure the fellows’ success in the career of their choosing.
The Science of Effective Mentorship In STEMM (A BTAA Graduate Deans Dissemination Event in Collaboration with the NASEM)
Download the Report Highlights. Find more information here.
TED Talks on Mentorship
Find 10 of the best TED talks on mentorship here.
Professional Development
The Director of the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs, Dr. Blessing Enekwe (blessing@umd.edu), regularly offers Mentor Training Workshops, by the end of which participants should be able to clearly articulate a personal mentoring philosophy to anyone inside or outside their discipline, and describe multiple strategies for dealing with mentoring challenges. Make sure you check OPA Postdoc Newsletter regularly, so you do not miss registration deadlines.
Resources
The Science of Effective Mentorship in STEMM [An interactive study]
Effective Mentoring in STEM: Practice, Research, and Future Directions
Entering Mentoring: A Seminar to Train a New Generation of Scientists
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine - Centers and Programs
The Global Postgraduate Diversity Resource - A CGS-ETS Joint Initiative
[1] National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (U.S.). Committee on Effective Mentoring in STEMM. (2019). The science of effective mentorship in stemm. (M. L. Dahlberg & A. Byars-Winston, Eds.) (Ser. Consensus study report). National Academies Press. https://www.nap.edu/catalog/25568/the-science-of-effective-mentorship-in-stemm.