Mentoring

The Medical School is committed to ensuring that all faculty members receive the mentoring they need to excel in their professional roles and lead successful, satisfying careers at the University of Minnesota. A variety of resources are available to faculty members in the Medical School, through the Office of Faculty Affairs (OFA). We encourage faculty to connect with the OFA staff for additional assistance finding resources to help you succeed at the University.

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Department and Unit Programming

Health Equity Leadership and Mentoring Program

Effective mentoring is one of the most critical components of a successful academic career. The Health Equity Leadership & Mentoring Program (HELM), a part of the Medical School’s Program in Health Disparities Research, aims to provide such support. The program works to enhance the academic excellence and leadership capacity of diverse faculty and health disparities researchers at the University of Minnesota, with a broader goal to ultimately reduce health inequities. HELM addresses some of the challenges that many face in the academic setting. The program aims to support faculty and postdoctoral fellows/trainees from minority and underserved communities and other faculty whose research focuses on health equity.

CTSI: Online Mentor Training Courses

Optimizing the Practice of Mentoring (OPM) 101: For Research Mentors of Graduate Students, Fellows, and Early-Career Faculty

In this online training, you'll learn about the value of mentoring and explore strategies for supporting your mentees' intellectual, professional, and psychosocial development as researchers. You'll be introduced to different phases in the lifecycle of a mentoring relationship. And you'll be encouraged to adopt a thoughtful, proactive approach to navigating challenges that might arise in your interactions with mentees.

Course content is delivered through text, audio, mini-presentations, self-reflection, case studies, and other interactive activities. You will also have the opportunity to complete a Mentoring Action Plan and access an online mentoring toolkit.

Learning Outcomes:
After completing this training, you will be able to:

  • Appreciate and communicate to mentees the importance of mentoring in their development as researchers
  • Articulate the pros and cons of different mentoring models
  • More effectively fulfill the many roles and responsibilities a research mentor may be expected to perform
  • Engage in research mentoring in a more structured and intentional way, with attention to navigating the specific phases of the relationship
  • Proactively apply specific strategies to build and maintain effective research mentoring relationships
  • Identify and address challenges that might arise in a research mentoring relationship
  • Routinely reflect on and adapt your research mentoring practices

Who should attend:
Individuals who serve as research mentors for graduate students, fellows, or faculty in academic settings or other research training environments. Content is targeted to research mentoring within biomedical, behavioral, and social science fields. However, many of the principles and approaches covered in this course are applicable to other disciplines and other types of mentoring relationships.

Optimizing the Practice of Mentoring 102: For Research Mentors of Undergraduate Students

In this online training, you'll learn about the value of mentoring and explore strategies for supporting your mentees' intellectual, professional, and psychosocial development as researchers. You'll be introduced to different phases in the lifecycle of a mentoring relationship. And you'll be encouraged to adopt a thoughtful, proactive approach to navigating challenges that might arise in your interactions with mentees.

Course content is delivered through text, audio, mini-presentations, self-reflection, case studies, and other interactive activities. You will also have the opportunity to complete a Mentoring Action Plan and access an online mentoring toolkit.

Learning Outcomes:
After completing this training, you will be able to:

  • Appreciate and communicate to mentees the importance of mentoring in their development as researchers
  • Articulate the pros and cons of different mentoring models
  • More effectively fulfill the many roles and responsibilities a research mentor may be expected to perform
  • Engage in research mentoring in a more structured and intentional way, with attention to navigating the specific phases of the relationship
  • Proactively apply specific strategies to build and maintain effective research mentoring relationships
  • Identify and address challenges that might arise in a research mentoring relationship
  • Routinely reflect on and adapt your research mentoring practices

Who should attend:
Individuals who serve as research mentors for undergraduate students. Content is targeted to research mentoring within biomedical, behavioral, and social science fields. However, many of the principles and approaches covered in this course are applicable to other disciplines and other types of mentoring relationships.

Enhancing Motivation Using the CARES Mentoring Model

In this online training, you’ll learn about basic motivation concepts and their well-researched impact on satisfaction, performance, and persistence in educational and professional settings. You’ll be introduced to a motivation-focused model of mentoring that has a strong theoretical foundation. And you’ll explore strategies for putting the model’s principles into action with your mentees.

Learning Outcomes:
After completing this training, you will be able to:

  • Link core components of human motivation to the effect they have on a person’s performance, persistence, and well-being
  • Identify key features of mentoring that support mentees’ needs in order to promote their motivation and well-being
  • Recognize and begin to address issues of work-life balance and diversity, and the impact those have on mentees’ basic needs.

Mentoring Excellence Training Academy (META)

META is open to faculty investigators who hold appointments in any of the University's health sciences colleges/schools (Dentistry, Medical School, Nursing, Pharmacy, Public Health, Veterinary Medicine) and College of Biological Sciences. Faculty in other colleges across the U of M can participate if they are engaged in clinical and translational research.

This program is focused primarily on mentoring that occurs in a research context; however, many of the methods and principles can be applied to other mentoring scenarios in academia. By participating in the Academy, you will further develop your ability to contribute to the career advancement of your mentees, learn effective strategies for developing positive relationships with them, and engage in thoughtful reflection and discussion of your mentoring practices with other faculty colleagues.

This professional development program is supported by CTSI.

Because spots are limited, please register only if you can commit to the full META program

 

 

Career Planning
Getting Started
Initial Meeting
Reviewing Progress
Additional Resources

Websites 

Publications 

Peer Mentoring Opportunities for Faculty


Near-Peer Group Mentoring

To increase support for your career development beyond your individual mentoring, OFA is providing some group "near-peer'' mentoring with senior faculty involvement. These meetings will serve as a platform to collaborate, share insights, and address challenges collectively. The objective of these peer group meetings is to:

  • Foster a sense of community and collaboration among colleagues within our departments.
  • Provide a forum for knowledge sharing and best practice exchange.
  • Address common challenges and explore innovative solutions with support from OFA.
  • Enhance communication and teamwork across different teams or units within the department.
  • Support each other's professional development and growth.

These meetings will be held quarterly (every 3 months) via Zoom:

  • Academic and/or Clinician Track Assistant Professors Basic Science Departments - Tuesdays beginning January 7, 9:00-10:00 am; will alternate with Thursdays beginning April 10, 4:00-5:00 pm
  • PhD Assistant Professors in Clinical Depts. (all tracks) - Thursdays beginning January 9, 400-5:00 pm; will alternate with Tuesdays beginning April 1, 8:00-9:00 am

For each set of meetings, the specific times will alternate to avoid having consistent conflicts. Those who attend are welcome to join some or all of these meetings - no one has to commit to attending every one.

Planning Your Next Promotion Meetings / "New" Associate Professors

It is not too early for Associate Professors who are 1-2 years into their faculty appointment to start thinking about their plans to position themselves for future promotion to Professor.  The purpose of these meetings is to:

  • Improve our mentoring for Associate Professors, helping ensure individuals are on the track towards future promotion
  • Identify mentoring needs for Associate Professors (and then to work with Departments to meet these)
  • Develop a peer group to share common challenges and solutions in Associate Professor career development

There will be two separate meetings that will be held quarterly (every 3 months) via Zoom:

  • Tenure Track and Research-focused Faculty - Thursdays beginning January 9, 1:00-2:00 pm; will alternate with Tuesdays beginning April 8, 11:00-12:00 pm
  • Clinically-active Faculty (Clinician Track and many Academic Track)  - Tuesdays beginning January 7, 11:00-12:00 pm; will alternate with Thursdays beginning April 10, 1:00-2:00 pm 
    • Academic Track faculty have the option to join with either the tenure track group (if more research focused OR Clinician Track group).

For more information on how to attend these meetings, please contact ms-ofa@umn.edu.

OFA Resources

The Office of Faculty Affairs provides additional support to faculty as they work to successfully pursue their intellectual passions, advance in their academic medicine careers and become future leaders at the University of Minnesota.

For individual faculty—whether early- or mid-career—OFA staff are available to consult and provide guidance in the following areas:

  • Building a community of mentors
  • Identifying and accessing resources
  • Overcoming professional challenges and cultural barriers
  • Increasing scholarly output
  • Expanding networks
  • Establishing a desired level of work-home integration
  • Pursuing career advancement opportunities and more 

For departments, divisions and other faculty groups, OFA provides organizational advice and support. Staff can assist with assessing and expanding current mentoring programs to enhance their effectiveness, as well as help establish new mentoring models.

Other Resources

Below is a sample of additional resources available to Medical School faculty at the University of Minnesota. Please contact the Office of Faculty Affairs for help with navigating the University or finding additional resources.

Research

The Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI)is an integrative network of research services and support at the University of Minnesota. CTSI provides research services and resources for the entire spectrum of clinical and translational research. This includes: 

  • Basic, clinical and community-engaged research

  • Access to data, information and knowledge services

  • Training and advancement programs

  • Career development opportunities

We also encourage faculty members to attend CTSI’s Career Development Seminar Series.

The Research Toolkit helps investigators and their teams find the resources they need to conduct research at the University.

The Research and Innovation Office serves the University’s five campuses by advocating for and facilitating the research and scholarly activities of faculty, staff and students. 

The Institutional Review Board is a key component of the University of Minnesota’s Human Research Protection Program. It was established to protect the rights and welfare of human research participants. 

Are you searching for a place to publish an article? The online Journal of Opinions, Ideas and Essays publishes works on a wide range of topics by retired or active University faculty and staff. Published electronically, its articles have been downloaded by readers in more than 60 countries. This journal is sponsored by the University of Minnesota Retirees Association and managed by the University of Minnesota Libraries.

Check out the Medical School's research web page for more resources!

Health Sciences Library

The Health Sciences Libraries can assist with:

  • Creating NIH biosketches and complying with other funding agency policies, including developing data management plans and troubleshooting deposit in PubMed Central

  • Identifying funding opportunities, both from government and foundation funders

  • Developing methods for systematic and scoping reviews, including creating, documenting, and implementing search strategies and data collection methods

  • Locating existing information sources, including unpublished material and research data

  • Navigating the publishing landscape, including identifying appropriate venues and potentially predatory publishers

  • Tracking and demonstrating the impact of research, including citation-based metrics, international impact, and impact on policy and media

  • Establishing practical organizational strategies, including best practices for citation managers, file naming conventions, folder structures

Visit their page or contact them at hsl@umn.edu.

Medical Education

The Office for Medical Education, led by the vice dean for education and academic affairs, is responsible for medical education across the continuum of admissions, undergraduate medical education, graduate medical education, continuing professional development, simulation, mortuary science and the anatomy bequest program.

Medical Educator Development and Scholarship (MEDS) aims to improve the quality and effectiveness of medical education by providing basic science and clinical medical educators with the tools they need to be effective teachers, educational leaders and scholars.

Continuing Professional Development

The Office of Continuing Professional Development (OCPD) plans educational activities in partnership with University departments as well as external organizations, professional associations, and hospitals and clinics. These activities offer continuing education opportunities to healthcare professionals while meeting joint accreditation requirements. OCPD offers in-person and online learning programs, plus opportunities for faculty to work with staff to design and develop their own educational activities. OCPD also can assist faculty in maintaining certification and continuing education credits. For more information, join the OCPD mailing list.

Articles Related to Mentoring

Websites:
Articles by Dr. Kerry Ann Rockquemore:
Articles for Mid-Career Faculty:
Articles for PhD Faculty in Clinical Departments
Articles for Academic Faculty in Basic Science Departments
General Interest Articles