On many campuses, mentoring is widely valued but loosely defined. It’s often left to individual departments or informal pairings, without much structure or accountability. While many institutions recognize the importance of faculty mentoring, building a coordinated, sustainable approach that works across all career stages remains a challenge. At Emory University, efforts to strengthen mentoring began … Read more
For new and experienced department chairs alike, leadership can feel isolating. You’re expected to manage conflict, mentor faculty, make strategic decisions, and balance countless priorities—often without any formal preparation. That’s exactly why we launched the Department Chair Success Program (CSP). After welcoming our inaugural cohort, one thing became clear: when chairs are supported, everything changes. … Read more
Author: NCFDD Mentoring is widely recognized as essential to faculty success, but not all faculty experience it as effective or equitable. In our recent collaboration with the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE), we took a closer look at national faculty survey data to better understand who’s being supported by current mentoring models—and … Read more
Author: NCFDD For a long time, academic mentorship has followed a familiar formula: a junior scholar is paired with a more senior colleague—someone with experience, wisdom, and insider knowledge. This “guru model” was once the gold standard, designed for a time when faculty careers were more linear, roles more narrowly defined, and success pathways more … Read more
A white paper from NCFDD and COACHE What does effective mentoring actually look like, how can institutions prioritize it, and how can you obtain it? Produced in partnership with NCFDD and the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) at Harvard University, this white paper examines the persistent gap between how important mentoring is … Read more
Author: NCFDD If you ask most faculty whether mentoring matters, the answer is almost always yes. But if you ask whether their mentoring experiences are actually helping them thrive? That’s where the conversation shifts. Many faculty enter academia expecting mentorship to be a meaningful part of their growth. They’re told they’ll get guidance on research, … Read more
Author: Steve Lee, PhD In an upcoming workshop, I’ll be offering some strategies to help faculty find and manage relationships with mentors. My approach has been to encourage faculty to “mentor up”, i.e. to learn how to pro-actively engage with their mentors, which is based on Gabarro’s and Kotter’s original concept of “managing up”. When Gabarro … Read more
Actionable Insights to Help Your Institution Lead, Support, and Sustain Faculty Success in 2025 Learn the five critical areas where institutions can empower faculty to adapt and excel in today’s dynamic academic environment! At NCFDD, we’ve spent over 15 years partnering with higher education institutions and engaging with over 200,000 faculty members. We understand the … Read more
Author: Kerry Ann Rockquemore, PhD Originally published on Inside Higher Ed. I was recently in a meeting with a president, chief diversity officer and dean at a small liberal arts college. The president launched our conversation by confidently insisting that while lots of people talk about the importance of mentoring, nothing really works, nobody has figured … Read more
Author: Kerry Ann Rockquemore, PhD Originally posted on Inside Higher Ed. In the spirit of continuing to question the tired and dysfunctional myths about mentoring that are pervasive in the academy (the meaning of mentoring, sink or swim, the limit of anecdotes, and mentoring underrepresented faculty) let me move to one that is both organizationally ineffective and individually debilitating: once professors … Read more