Professor Laura Goodwin
School of Education
University of Colorado Denver
During the 2000-01 academic year, I developed a proposal for a formal mentoring program for junior faculty in the School of Education (SOE) at UCD. I developed the proposal after conducting a fairly extensive review of the literature on faculty mentoring. The program is somewhat unique, I believe, for two reasons: it is based on a synergistic, co-mentoring model, and it is structured in such a way that it is "housed" in our doctoral "labs." The SOE faculty and administration adopted the program, and it commenced early in the 2001-02 academic year. Seven mentor-mentee pairs participated in the program this past year. Program evaluation data from the end of the first year showed positive benefits, to date -- with both mentors and mentees reporting joint collaborative research projects completed or in progress. Everyone who participated in the program was enthusiastic about it and thought it was a good addition to our School.
I wasn't too involved in the program this past year since I was serving as the Acting Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. However, this next year I will be the coordinator of the program. I plan on continuing to collect data on its effectiveness, as well. I am particularly interested in the long-range benefits of participating in the program for both the mentors and mentees.