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Mentoring Workshops

Effective mentoring is necessary to guide young researchers and keep them engaged with science. The Mentor-in-Residence and Entering Mentoring activities offered through the C³ Program aim to help enhance the mentoring capacity of faculty, postdocs, and grad students that work with undergraduates on a day-to-day basis.

Mentors-in-Residence are scholars with established track records in research and science education who are invited to MU to share their views and discuss effective approaches in training and mentoring undergraduates. Entering Mentoring is a discussion-based workshop series designed to help postdocs and graduate students develop positive student-mentor connections.

Entering Mentoring

"Effective mentoring can be learned, but not taught." -Jo Handelsman, HHMI Investigator and co-founder of the "Entering Mentoring" program

Graduate students and postdoctoral fellows are often assigned to work with undergraduate students in lab. In many cases, not only is it the first research experience for the undergraduate, but it may also be the first formal mentoring experience for the grad student or postdoc! The Wisconsin Program for Scientific Teaching (University of Wisconsin-Madison) has designed a well-developed and thoughtful workshop series for senior graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to discuss mentoring strategies, identifying student needs, evaluating progress, and developing a mentoring philosophy.

Spring 2012 Seminar Series

"Entering Mentoring" is a free, 10-session series. Participants that attend at least 8 of 10 sessions will receive a certificate of completion at the Celebration of Teaching Luncheon in May.

Congratulations to all those who completed the spring semester 2011 Entering Mentoring series. Participants and facilitators were regonized at the Celebration of Teaching Excellence. Click here for the complete list.

The Spring 2012 series begins the week of February 27^th and runs through the week of April 30^th (no sessions during Spring Break and Life Sciences Week).

There are five sections available (participants must attend the same section each week):

• Tuesdays 9 AM - 10 AM
• Tuesdays 12 noon - 1 PM
• Wednesdays 9 AM - 10 AM
• Wednesdays 4 PM - 5 PM
• Thursdays 9:30 AM - 10:30 AM

To sign up, send us an email with your name, e-mail address, job title, name of the PI of your lab, department, and workshop section preferences. All sections will meet in the Bond Life Sciences Center.

Topics will include:

     Tips for writing letters of recommendation
     Dealing with students in crisis
     A personal philosophy of mentoring
     Roles and expectations of the mentee
     Roles and expectations of the mentor
     Dynamics of the mentoring triad: undergrad student - graduate student/post doc - faculty PI
     Strategies for effective communication
     Mentoring case studies
     Resolving challenges
     Cultural differences
     Preparing your mentee for lab meetings
     Helping your mentee with poster presentations
     Providing feedback and wrapping things up with your mentee
     Effective tools for your mentoring toolbox

Mentor-in-Residence

September 14-15, 2011

Rick McGee, Ph.D.
Associate Dean for Faculty Recruitment and Professional Development

Professor of Medical Education and Faculty Development

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

About Dr. McGee

Rick McGee has over 35 years of experience, first as a successful cellular neurobiologist and pharmacology professor, and subsequently as a leader of PhD and MD/PhD programs, designer of programs and interventions to guide development of young scientists, and Program Director for numerous NIH-funded diversity initiatives. Before joining Northwestern in 2007, Dr. McGee has held faculty and administrative positions at Georgetown University Schools of Medicine and Dentistry, the Medical College of Ohio, the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, and NIH's intramural Graduate Partnerships Program. In the past 15 years, he has shifted from laboratory research to social-science research to study research training and career development. In his current academic position he is responsible for guiding the development of research expertise of young clinical and basic science faculty. He also has experience as a program evaluator and consultant to research training programs around the U.S.

In addition to his primary responsibility for leading faculty development efforts, he has initiated a major research program to actually study career development of young scientists and experiment with novel training methods. The research approach integrates social and natural science theories and practices in both basic and applied/translational research. He currently is PI of 5 NIH-funded research and research training program awards that are integrated under the Scientific Careers Research and Development Group.

About the Scientific Careers Research & Development Group at Northwestern

The mission is to develop new approaches to the training of young scientists that more effectively bring their talents to the scientific enterprise. In so doing, the goal is to contribute to the national mission of maximally stimulating creative problem solving through inclusion of the widest possible range of individuals and the perspectives they bring in research and teaching. To achieve this goal requires much greater participation in the research enterprise by individuals from underrepresented groups. Insights from social and behavioral sciences research make it possible to propose and empirically test new theories and models of scientific training. The group includes three senior scientists, six research associates, and four post-docs and professional staff members. Currently six empirical studies and translational research projects are underway with NIH funding.

Main website: http://www.careersresearch.northwestern.edu

For more on Dr. McGee see: http://careersresearch.northwestern.edu/about/index.html

For a list of recent publications and presentations: http://www.careersresearch.northwestern.edu/publications/index.html

For questions or additional information, please contact Linda Blockus (blockusl@missouri.edu).

Full Schedule

Wednesday, September 14

Thursday, September 15