#  In conversation with Geoff Watson, CEO of NCFDD 

 



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 ![Geoff Watson headshot](/sites/g/files/omnuum6791/files/2025-05/GW%20Headshot.png)

 

COACHECast speaks with Geoff Watson, CEO of NCFDD, about the power of mentoring, how leaders in higher education can prioritize it to support their faculty, and how to bridge the gap to make it effective. An organization that empowers faculty for lasting success through programs and coaching, NCFDD partnered with COACHE on the recent white paper [“Redefining Mentoring in Higher Education”](https://web.ncfdd.org/redefining-mentoring-in-higher-education?utm_campaign=10663032-COACHE%20Whitepaper&utm_source=NCFDD%20COACHE%20White%20Paper).

**“What we're hearing from faculty in all types of institutions at all different points of their career is exactly what the data shows, which is mentoring is incredibly important, but the effectiveness of mentoring is not quite there.”**

Watson and host Dr. Todd Benson, Executive Director and Principal Investigator at COACHE, discuss how mentoring can not only improve faculty satisfaction and performance but also impact a range of key dimensions for individuals and institutions. They explore findings from the white paper, including meeting the increasingly diverse needs of faculty through bidirectional mentoring in place of the traditional one-directional “guru” model, how to optimize mentoring, and the importance of measuring its impact on faculty. Watson also shares the three things that NCFDD would advise institutions to do as they are either rethinking their current approach to mentoring or starting a new approach.

**WEBINAR**  
[Rethinking Faculty Mentoring: What Institutions Can Do Differently](https://web.ncfdd.org/rethinking-mentoring)  
Date: Tuesday, June 24, 2025  
Time: 1:00 PM ET

**RELATED CONTENT**  
About [Geoff Watson and NCFDD Team](https://www.ncfdd.org/ncfdd-team)  
About the [NCFDD](https://www.ncfdd.org/)  
Download white paper: [Redefining Mentoring in Higher Education](https://hubs.ly/Q03fZBPw0)

**TRANSCRIPT**  
Access the transcript [here.](https://coache.gse.harvard.edu/resource/coachecast-s2-e6-geoff-watson-transcript)



 



 

 See also:- [ COACHECast Season 2 ](/coachecast-season/coachecast-season-2)