On January 6, 2016 UC Davis ADVANCE and the Office of the Vice Provost-Academic Affairs co-hosted the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (NCFDD) Workshop on ”Rethinking Mentoring: How to Build Communities of Inclusion, Support, and Accountability.”

The workshop was presented by Mindi Thompson, PhD, HSP, the NCFDD Faculty Success Program Head Coach. Dr. Thompson started a new type of discussion about mentoring by describing the common problems that pre-tenure and post-tenure faculty members experience and why traditional mentoring programs fail to meet those needs. She proposed an alternative framework for mentoring that focuses on needs assessment and shifts the idea of mentoring from a relationship between two faculty members towards building a broad network of support, community and accountability. In addition. Dr. Thompson presented best practices in mentoring pre-tenure, under-represented and mid-career faculty.