Mentoring Reimagined includes a set of coordinated offerings that support mentoring practices over time. Units should begin by engaging in the foundational workshop to create a common foundation and shared language and then explore the additional offerings which create opportunities for deeper learning, reflection, skill-building, and context-specific conversations. We commonly work with different audiences (for example, faculty and graduate students) in separate sessions to ensure relevance to each group’s roles, while sharing a common set of core ideas and approaches.
Foundational Workshop
A facilitated, interactive workshop that explores shared principles and practices of effective mentoring across the full academic career. The workshop emphasizes mentoring as a set of attainable skills that support both mentors and mentees, without requiring more time or effort than people already have.
What participants explore
- Building networks of support rather than relying on a single mentor
- Practicing concrete approaches to mentoring with structure, mentoring with care, and mentoring like a coach
- Reflecting on mentoring norms, expectations, and challenges within the unit
What to expect
- Typically 2 hours
- Interactive, discussion-based, and tool-focused
- Includes time for unit-specific reflection and application
- Facilitated by program faculty leads, often in collaboration with unit partners
Skill-Building Modules
Short, focused sessions that dive deeper into one specific mentoring skill introduced in the foundational workshop. Modules are designed to be practical and immediately applicable. Departments can select which modules are relevant to their mentoring needs.
Topics may include:
- Building networks of mentorship support
- Mentoring with structure (agreements, compacts, boundaries, transparency)
- Mentoring with more care (supportive practices, the role of identity)
- Balancing structure and care in mentoring relationships
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Mentoring like a coach (listening, questioning, being curious about the mentee’s values)
What to expect:
- Typically 1 hour
- Centered around a specific tool or skill to take away
- Can be stand-alone or offered as a short series
Lunchtime Conversations
Facilitated, discussion-focused conversations designed to make mentoring more concrete and visible within a unit. These sessions are shaped around locally relevant topics and often co-facilitated with respected mentors in the unit. Below is a list of example topics a unit can choose from, or you can create your own.
Topics may include:
- Making mentoring visible in faculty’s self-statements for merit and promotion
- Mentoring agreements in labs and research groups
- Mid-career faculty (associate professors and early full professors) mentoring needs
- Resolving mentoring-related conflicts
- Building a strong mentoring network at any career stage
- Mentoring early-career faculty in starting a lab/research group
- Mentoring for students’ interests in alternative careers to academia
- Mentoring regarding advancement in book-based disciplines
- How to create a mentoring program in your department/school
What to expect:
- Typically 1 hour
- Co-facilitated by experienced mentors in the unit
- Designed to support shared learning within the unit and long-term sustainability within the unit
Working With Us
Mentoring Reimagined is designed to support mentoring practices through sustained engagement rather than one-time events. Units typically begin with the foundational workshop and continue with follow-up skill-building modules and lunchtime conversations—ideally in the same semester—that support reflection, practice, and continual learning.
We collaborate with units to shape an approach that fits their context, goals, and audiences, and we work best with departments, schools, colleges, and programs that are interested in engaging meaningfully with this work. If you are interested in learning more or exploring a potential partnership, please complete the interest form below (coming soon) and we will follow up to continue the conversation.