Mentorship: A Path to Growth
Mentorship is a cornerstone for professional development and career advancement within the College of Arts & Sciences (CAS). The CAS 2024 Equity, Justice, & Inclusion (EJI) Climate Survey revealed that 93% of respondents reported a positive impact from mentorship, and 92% support the establishment of a structured mentorship program within CAS. The Mentorship Program is a semi-structured mentorship program aimed at fostering both formal and informal professional relationships among faculty across disciplines and ranks.
There are multiple ways the college can support our community in navigating academia and developing professionally from being more transparent about expectations to offering training on specific subjects. Providing mentorship resources is part of this multipronged approach. While mentors bring valuable expertise and knowledge to mentorship relationships, please remember that a person’s chair is best equipped with answering questions related to promotion and achieving professional success in a particular department or unit.
What’s happening this year: 2025-26
Led by the Associate Dean for Equity, Justice, and Inclusion, the College is working towards providing a robust mentorship program for faculty. (See below for staff resources)
How to Engage in Mentorship Effectively
The EJI Repository has been updated with 100 new mentorship-related resources to further support the CAS community. This comprehensive, searchable collection is designed to foster professional development, connection, and growth, offering valuable tools for building equity-minded mentorship practices. The repository serves as a key resource for advancing EJI goals and mentorship across the college. Simply start by selecting Mentorship Guidance as the category to explore the updated resources!
CAS Mentorship Peer Coaching Groups
CAS is supporting faculty peer coaching groups for a second year. Our in-person Peer Coaching Group Kick Off this November 14th from 1:30-3:30pm, facilitated by the Director of UW’s ADVANCE Center for Institutional Change, will provide an overview of the Peer Coaching Circle (PCC) model and demonstrate how to use it. Following the meeting, participants will be placed in coaching groups and provided the tools to conduct regular meetings with your PCC.
Beyond just community-building, these meetings provide a structured space for faculty to receive targeted feedback on specific challenges they face, foster accountability through the creation of personal contracts, and enable participants to reflect on common themes that can drive collective growth and innovation. This approach supports not only the creation of a supportive network but also the practical, day-to-day advancement of each participant's professional goals.
Register for Peer Coaching Kick off
Our Mentorship Portal - Finding Your Mentor/Mentee
The CAS Mentorship Program has launched a new mentorship portal that allows faculty to search for mentors or mentees based on specific qualities, such as professional skill sets, research interests, teaching strategies, and service expertise. This pilot program focuses on fulfilling a gap specifically identified in faculty mentorship opportunities. Try it out here.
Professional Development & Community Building
CAS’s EJI office also coordinates a series of social events and professional development opportunities related to mentorship. Stay tuned for further events.
Mentorship Resources for Staff
Staff can find mentorship resources through UW’s Professional & Organizational Development site. Resources include a mentoring toolkit, best practices around promoting staff professional and career development, and a video of a panel presentation on mentorship sponsored by UW Human Resources. The College will also work with the staff advisory council to discuss how to best support mentorship opportunities for our staff.
Value-Driven Mentorship
CAS is dedicated to fostering a community in which members can collaborate on shared interests and advance EJI within our academic environment. The CAS Mentorship Program centers on these core values:
- Mutual Respect and Learning: Building trust through valuing each other’s experiences.
- Reciprocity: Ensuring both mentors and mentees benefit from the relationship.
- Shared Interests: Aligning mentorship based on common interests for greater impact.
- Professional Development: Facilitating career advancement through skill-building.
- Networking: Expanding professional networks to foster new opportunities.
- Consistency: Regular interactions to build strong, lasting relationships.
- Sustainability: Implementing feedback mechanisms to ensure long-term success.
Our program’s values are also influenced by CAS’s guiding principles.
Have more questions?
Please visit our FAQs!