Enhancing Mentorship Opportunities with Faculty Feedback

Emory University expands impact of mentoring program, is supported by insights from COACHE data  

Mentorship programs at Emory University in Atlanta are highly valued for their contributions to faculty success. Both faculty and administrators at the private research university are committed to taking active roles to expand access and opportunities for mentoring.  

Emory has continued to strengthen and grow its Faculty Mentorship Network and programs at its respected Center for Faculty Development and Excellence (CFDE), including further developing mentorship processes for all faculty, and launching new forms of mentorship to meet a wider range of faculty needs.  

In addition, data from the 2020 and 2023 COACHE Faculty Job Satisfaction Surveys has helped Emory leaders understand the impact of their efforts around mentorship, and what developments in their mentoring programs would be most beneficial. 

Dr. Pearl Dowe, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs at Emory, knows from personal experience how powerful being a mentor or mentee can be and says, “My career wouldn’t have evolved without those friendships, without those relationships and the information that was freely offered.”  

Schools drive key actions with data 

In addition to its institutional-wide initiatives, several key actions to strengthen Emory’s mentoring programs were driven by individual schools. According to Dr. Dowe, the Office of the Provost decided to encourage each school to enhance its mentoring programs, recognizing the schools’ understanding of the specific needs of their faculty. 

Dr. Dowe believes schools appreciated the fact that the administration didn’t direct them how to support their faculty but instead presented them with the data to act on. For example, rather than using the common format of mentoring pairs, the College of Arts & Sciences determined that developing College-wide mentoring groups that brought together faculty across departments would be most effective for its faculty. In this model, senior faculty members serve as mentors to small cohorts of faculty, with groups brought together based on a range of commonalities, such as area of discipline, historically underrepresented faculty, or faculty who are associates. This approach has served as an effective model for other schools to replicate. 

“We have an opportunity to shore up what we’re doing and to think about how we are providing support,” says Dr. Dowe, noting that the university contributed to these focused efforts through enhancing mentoring efforts via the CFDE and increasing faculty engagement with the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (NCFDD).  

Unlocking the value of interdisciplinary work through mentorship 

Interdisciplinary work also emerged as a priority area for improving the impact of mentoring. University-wide, COACHE data showed that while faculty valued the opportunity to do interdisciplinary work, there was an opportunity to increase the level and type of support made available.  

This insight from faculty helped to expand Emory’s popular cross-school mentor initiative, offered through CFDE. The initiative recognizes the benefits of stepping outside of a school for mentoring, given that mentees may be seeking support on a variety of areas — from navigating very specific processes within the school and discipline or how to be a faculty member in the university, to learning more about a skill that is not common within their own school, such as grant writing. Now, cross-school matches are regular occurrences, and multiple mentorships are also available when needed. 

“Faculty are connecting outside of their own unit, and they are developing collaborations. This not only builds mentoring opportunities, but it also builds research connections. It can build into thinking differently about teaching and team teaching. It becomes a very organic way for someone to help build a more robust type of career area,” says Dr. Dowe. 

Greater focus delivers great impact 

The impactful results of Emory’s efforts are clear. In the 2023 COACHE survey, faculty reported they could more clearly see the importance and effectiveness of the mentoring resources available to them. In the fall of 2022, CFDE fostered a record number of new mentee-mentor relationships across the university. And as of March 2023, more than 200 faculty who are interested in being part of a mentor-mentee relationship are now in the CFDE database.  

Moreover, Emory reports that these changes have led to increased faculty satisfaction and supported recruitment and retention efforts. 

Looking to the future, Emory leadership still sees more value to be gained through a continued focus on mentorship. It has plans to expand the orientation program and build out a new faculty institute that will incorporate campus resources as well as leverage Emory’s relationship with the NCFDD.  

Encouraging faculty to take advantage of all the resources available, as well as develop their own relationships, continues to be a focus for Dr. Dowe. “Ultimately, in this profession, I want people to thrive.”