Building a Mentoring Culture in a Professional Organization to Enhance Belonging and Career Development

• In Event: Fairmont Roundtable Session Six
  In Roundtable Session: From Local to National: Redesigning Professional Mentoring to Promote Equity, Development, and Community (Table 8)

Abstract

While we often describe the importance of mentoring, we fail to assess the culture in which mentoring has to take place. Mentoring must be valued, and that value conveyed throughout an institution. Not all institutions have a mentoring culture and faculty members may turn to their professional organization for a community and mentoring on scholarship, career development and sponsorship. This need is especially critical for those working in the professions since as educators they often have few if any like-minded colleagues in their department or school. At the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) a robust mentoring culture has been developed and we propose that the same approach used at UCSF can be employed to develop a mentoring culture for faculty who are members of Division I so that they can feel that they are part of a vibrant educator community.

At UCSF we identified 7 steps that can be applied to Division I. One: Collect Data to Assess Current Culture and Needs. All of us recognize this foundational step for developing any program and it is critical to recognize what mentoring at the national level would mean to faculty in the professions. Two: Engage Leadership. The commitment to create a mentoring culture must be embraced by Division Leadership. At this level it would be good to clarify the benefit of the mentoring culture. For Division I that relates to building stronger connections across professions to learn from and with each other. Three Identify Program Components and Expectations. There are many models for mentoring–dyads, groups, peers. Whatever model is chosen, the Division might want to consider offering mentor(s) to new members to maximize their sense of feeling that this is a place where they belong. Four: Create a Structure. Depending on the model chosen the Division will need to build the infrastructure possibly through the current mentoring committee. Five: Knowledge and Skill Development. We must ensure that those who engage in mentoring have a level of preparation and we can develop programs to help with mentoring both within the Division and across professions. Six: Increase Recognition and Rewards for Mentoring. The Division could identify ways to acknowledge mentors who facilitate this community building. Seven: Evaluate. As scholars we naturally will attend to this step to ensure we are meeting the needs of our members and creating the desired community.

These steps can launch Division I into creating a robust community facilitated through strong mentoring. This approach would be unique since the infrastructure is happening at the organizational rather than the local institutional level. As pointed out in the beginning educators in the professions often are isolated and we anticipate that creating a mentoring culture will help meet a critical need.

Author

• Patricia S. O'Sullivan, University of California - San Francisco
  Presenting Author