Mallory Johnson, PhD, with his mentee, Parya Saberi, a post-doctoral fellow.
Academic careers are demanding, and it’s common for junior UCSF faculty to seek the wisdom of those who have been at it for years. It’s also common for senior faculty to become mentors – a function increasingly recognized at UCSF as a valuable career contribution. Indeed, when a faculty member is being considered for a promotion, mentoring is now given as much weight as teaching.
While mentoring is widely embraced at UCSF, that doesn’t mean it’s easy to do. Many well-intentioned mentors struggle to be effective. Some are too shy or insecure to view themselves as a guide. Others have their hearts in their job, but scramble to find the time to add mentoring to the load. Some are comfortable with finding funds for their own research, but less confident about guiding others in the complex, fast-changing world of research grants.
That is exactly what the University’s Mentor Development Program is intended to address. The program, designed to help senior faculty and researchers mentor their midcareer colleagues, was launched three years ago by UCSF’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI). The CTSI, charged with strengthening the link between basic research and clinical treatment, turned out to be an excellent home for mentor training, with its focus on practical, hands-on medicine. To date, some 55 people have gone through the program. Keep reading
