A Lehigh ADVANCE Approach to Mentoring & Professional Development

"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."  -- NASEM, 2019 Consensus Report: The Science of Effective Mentorship in STEMM 

"A reciprocal learning relationship characterized by trust, respect, and commitment in which a mentor supports the professional and personal development of another by sharing life experiences, influence, and expertise." -  Zellers, Howard, Barcic, 2008

At Lehigh faculty receive and give mentoring and professional development across many topical domains, throughout the career, across many levels of the organization. Some are formal and some are informal. You can find a Suite of Programs available.  

Mentoring programs organized by the ADVANCE Center keep inclusive excellence in mind, recognizing that historic mentoring approaches do not always work for all the faculty working in universities today. Our programs will complement, not replace, mentoring which may take place at the department and/or college level. We offer mentoring programs and trainings because mentoring that attends to systems and best practices will cultivate a culture of mentoring which benefits individuals and organizations. ADVANCE has the capacity to support departments and/or colleges to design and assess their own faculty-faculty mentoring efforts. 

 

Characteristics of Mentoring
Mentoring involves
  • Advising, but not only advising  
  • Giving feedback 
  • Role modeling
  • Coaching 
  • Curiosity & cultural awareness
Mentoring is not
  • evaluation or performance review
  • imprinting or cloning
  • supervision or management
  • asking to trade or mask parts of self to belong 

Mentoring Programs and Resources

Lehigh ADVANCE Mentoring Guide Basic Agreement  

Lehigh ADVANCE: Faculty Development Planning Detailed Reflection Questions (part of promotion plan and useful at all career stages)

After the NSF required mentoring plans,  we organized this resource list 

University Program: Interdisciplinary Networking Committee program.   The Interdiscilnary Networking Committee program is for any new faculty who wishes for a networked mixed mentor-peer model of learning the institution and building connections.

Your Mentor Network Map (adapted from WEBS 2011 Workshop materials

Establish your own faculty development plan. Core questions for self reflection as you establish your new faculy career can help guide and inform time management and saying yes or no to different opportunities. 

How to be a "Quick Starter"- (Adapted from R. Boice, Advice for New Faculty Members, Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 2000)

Approximately 95% of new faculty take 4 to 5 years to meet their institution's teaching and research expectations

The other 5% - the “quick starters” - achieve this in the first 2 years of their appointment- How to be a quick starter?

  • Schedule a time for writing on a daily basis and actually use that time to write--Most new faculty talk a lot about the importance of scholarly writing and research, but actually spend very little time on either
  • Limit course preparation after the first offering to less than 1.5 hours of prep for each hour of lecture- Most new faculty spend up to 27 hours a week per course preparing for classes, and equate improving their teaching with improving their lecture notes
  • Teach at a slower pace, allowing more time for student interaction- most new faculty put so much material in their lectures they have to rush to cover it and fail to allow time for interaction and discussion
  • Integrate their research into their lectures- most new faculty look for outside sources and keep their research compartmentalized from their teaching
  • Network with colleagues 2 – 4 hours each week- Most new faculty fail to spend time developing relationships with their colleagues

 

 

ADVANCE will support Associate Professors in developing a Promotion Plan for do develop the skills and identify opportunities and experiences that will allow for continued development of excellence and leadership along the path to full professor.  

Launching Into Full Together: LIFT- A new professional development program for tenured associate professors planing to go up for full professor in 1,2, or 3 years. 

Have you considered Career Coaching? 

All Faculty, Postdoctoral Scholars and Graduate Students are encouraged to activate their profile through Lehigh's Institutional Membership in NCFDD. Click directly here for NCFDD website.

CIMER is a nationally recognized and validated curriculum. Lehigh has several trained facilitators on campus. 

Mentorship courses available by Lehigh facilitators focus on guiding attendees to understand and develop mentorship skills, especially in the realm of research mentoring, from most any role within a typical research environment.

Workshop series will be offered each semester for:

  • Faculty who are mentoring postdoctoral scholars, graduate students, and undergraduate researchers. 
  • Postdoctoral Scholars and Graduate Students who are often both mentors or mentees. Special focus on "mentoring up".  
Other foundational mentoring trainings are available. 
 

The journal articles on mentorship at the CIMER website are organized into the foloowing categories. Check them out!

  • Career Development
  • Consensus Studies and Commissioned Papers
  • Culturally Aware Mentorship
  • Mentorship Education
  • Mentoring in the time of COVID
  • Scientific Workforce Development

As referenced within Let's Rethink Mentoring, you may find a need for mentorship in a variety  of domains

A great start is How to Be a Great Mentor, a series of essays by Kerry Ann Rockquemore.

Other resources 

 

Supported by Lehigh ADVANCE and the The Office of the Provost-Deputy Provost for Faculty Affairs.

Lehigh ADVANCE News Article: How to be a Great Mentor

INC Program Course Site

Professional Development
Emotional Support --Imposter Syndrome: What is it? How to over come it?

A Sense of Community
Accountability
Institutional Sponsorship
Access to Networks
Project Specific Feedback

Resources and periodic discussion opportunities will be provided through Lehigh ADVANCE and the Provost's Office on the topics below to supplement the faculty mentoring experience. This list focuses on issues identified by Lehigh STEM women faculty to support successful faculty careers. They are listed to bring to the front of mind the types of things you may wish to discuss with some or all of your formal and informal mentors.

Topics:
Being a Good Mentor
Your Mentor Network Map (adapted from WEBS 2011 Workshop materials)
Ideas for Mentoring Activities
Time management
Career Mapping

Tracking Success/Failure- visuals
Ethics in a research laboratory
Mentoring Graduate Students
Teaching
Balancing it all: Teaching, Service, Scholarship
Cultivating Networks and Collaboration
Dealing with Difficult People
Managing a team (research group)
Grant Writing
Effective Meetings
Promotion and Tenure
Honing Leadership Skills
Becoming a Visible Leader
Leading a team (collaboration
Learning the Institution

Negotiating

Every Semester Needs a Plan: Related to time management, this link provides resources for goal and project management for the things that matter most, but tend to have low built-in accountability. 

Understand Unconscious Bias
In addition to being a successful researcher and teacher, a good mentor is accessible, responsive, open-minded, dedicated to the development of others, self-confident and people-oriented. Mentors should also be educated about unconscious biases, cognitive errors, and stereotype-threats that junior faculty, especially women or underrepresented minorities, may encounter. Use these references and tools to enhance mentoring:

-Stereotype Threat: Research-based suggestions for reducing the negative consequences of stereotyping on performance.
- Project Implicit, the Harvard site where you can take the Implicit Association Tests. There is also a Project Implicit information site
-Rising Above Cognitive Errors, JoAnn Moody
-Cognitive Errors and Unintended Biases: A Very Quick Review JoAnne Moody
Additional information about can be found by the link in the main menu of ADVANCE.

A fund to support faculty presentation of research at national and international conferences. Performing artists who are invited to compete in national competitions are also invited to apply for support. Travel Grant: Eugene Mercy, Jr. President/Provost Fund for Faculty Development

 

Leadership Development

The ADVANCE Center has advised, co-created and cross-promoted various internal and sponsored attendance at external leadership development programs for faculty and department chairs. We also share articles and other resources useful for increasing inclusive leadership. Learn more below. 

Leadership Programs and Resources

The Provost Faculty Fellows Program provides an opportunity for faculty who desire to foster institutional changes at Lehigh through work on a specific project while gaining experience in higher education leadership. As an important additional conduit for faculty insight and engagement, the Fellows make meaningful contributions to the campus through original initiatives, undertaking planned projects, or assisting with existing campus-wide academic initiatives. Projects fall into one or more of the following categories: faculty affairs, international affairs, undergraduate education, graduate education, or research, scholarship, and creative activities. The shape of projects and scope of work vary with the experience, skills, and aspirations of individual faculty fellows. The duration of the appointment is based on the scope of the proposed project. Typically, Fellows are appointed for one academic year, but shorter-term project proposals (summer or one-term) or longer-term project proposals are considered. 

Fellows work with a mentor and participate in a set of leadership development activities related to academic administration and the operations of the Office of the Provost. In addition, the Provost supports external leadership or development opportunities tailored to the interests of the individual faculty fellow (e.g. HERS Leadership Institute, ACE Fellows, The Chronicle’s Strategic Leadership Program, NCFDD workshops).

If you have any questions regarding this program, please feel free to contact Larry Snyder (lvs2@lehigh.edu), Deputy Provost for Faculty Affairs

Lehigh Human Resources offers various careeer enrichment and learning opportunities whichinclude several on the domains of leadership. Look at this handy graphic. Two courses for future faculty leaders are: 
Lehigh Leadership Academy and the Pragmatic Leadership at Lehigh.

Faculty Development Grants help move STEM faculty from discussion of interdisciplinary collaboration and leadership in meetings and seminars to action that has an impact on STEM faculty careers. Funds can be used toward travel by Lehigh STEM faculty and visiting scholars to promote interdisciplinary collaboration or for tuition and travel assistance for Lehigh women STEM faculty to attend professional leadership programs.  Applications will open each August. Apply via Infoready: ADVANCE Center Grants for Faculty Development, Interdisciplinary Collaboration and Leadership.

The NCFDD Department Chair Success Program (CSP) is an immersive 12-week program designed to support department chairs who have been in their role for 2 years or less, equipping them with the necessary skills to navigate the challenges of the job. If you are a new or incoming chair, reach out to the Deputy Provost for Faculty Affairs to discuss if this program is right for you. 


 

Higher Education Resource Services https://www.hersnetwork.org/

Provides a range of professional development courses from mid-career through the executive. 

ELATES at Drexel is a national leadership development program designed to promote senior women faculty, and faculty allies of all genders, in leadership for academic engineering, computer science, and other STEM fields into effective institutional leadership roles within their schools and universities with a demonstrated commitment to increasing the representation of women in STEM. 

Applications for the 2024-2025 ELATES fellowship year are open now until February 1, 2024.

The Association for Engineering Education (ASEE) offers a variety of instructor-led courses, and these two are specific to preparing for formal leadership roles. 

ACE offers a variety of resources for higher education, including leadership programs and insights.

Professional Learning & Communities

SEER Process: See, Enact, Evaluate, Revisit; The SEER Framework is implemented through the SEER Process through colleagues at the University of Wisconsin

Equity-Minded Leadership, Centering Racial Equity- through HERS