Contact Information

Mentoring at the Center for Faculty Development

Email: alevy@mgh.harvard.edu

Confidential Contact

If you need advice on obtaining a mentor or dealing with a challenging mentoring situation, please contact Dr. Anne Levy, CFD Senior Program Manager: alevy@mgh.harvard.edu. 
Your confidentiality will be respected.

Mentoring Resources


MENTORING ADVICE AND SUPPORT FROM MGH COLLEAGUES

Articles by MGH faculty on Mentoring:

Videos by senior mentors on the value of mentoring.

Jennifer Temel, MD, on the value of mentoring

Hasan Bazari, MD, on the value of mentoring, a reflections by a John T. Potts, Jr., MD Faculty Mentoring Award recipient

Maurizio Fava, MD, reflects on the importance of mentoring.

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MENTORSHIP TRAINING OPTIONS

Inside the CFD:

  • Leadership Development Program
    • This 9-month course aims to prepare investigators for challenges inherent in establishing and maintaining a successful research program. One of the didactic and interactive sessions focuses specifically on mentorship; other sessions are also relevant to the art of mentorship.
  • Group Coaching for Research-focused Women Investigators at MGH
    • This annual 7-week Workshop Series offered through the Office for Women’s Careers includes sessions relevant to the art and act of mentorship. Look for the next application cycle by subscribing to the CFD Newsletter (email cfd@partners.org).


Inside HMS:

  • HMS Core for Mentorship Excellence
    • Building upon University of Wisconsin-Madison’s “Center for the Improvement in the Mentored Experience in Research” (CIMER), the Core offers workshops facilitated by CIMER-trained Harvard faculty using case-based discussions. Mentors engage in collective problem solving and receive resources to optimize their mentoring practices. Click on the link to learn when the upcoming workshops are scheduled.
  • Mentorship in Clinical and Translational Research - Harvard Catalyst
    • This digital guide is designed to help mentees and mentors at all career stages maximize their mentoring relationships and grow their networks, with practical worksheets, videos, templates, exercises, and more.
  • Career Catalyst - Harvard Catalyst
    • Available to early-career researchers, Career Catalyst is a strategic, longitudinal program that matches participants with senior faculty who serve as developmental mentors.
    • New cohorts launch each September and run through June. Applications open in the spring.
  • The MGH Division of Clinical Research
    • From the DCR website, navigate to the Education Center tab; the drop-down menu will show Full Course Catalog. Log in using MGB credentials and type ‘Mentoring’ in the search bar.

 

Outside MGH and HMS:

  • National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN) Mentoring Graduate Students, Post Docs & Early Career Faculty
  • Optimizing the Practice of Mentoring (OPM), Clinical and Translational Science Institute, University of Minnesota
    • Self-guided 90-120 minute online course that engages learners through text, audio, mini-presentations, and self-assessments. Link to the course and external registration guide here.
  • UCSF Mentor Training Program Archive -Synchronous Training Curricula
    • University of California-San Francisco offers an evidence-based synchronous online mentor training program; materials from this program’s archive are available for broader use.
  • The Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research (CIMER), University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Education Research
    • CIMER facilitates research mentor and mentee training at all career stages and across disciplines; develops and studies new approaches and resources for advancing mentoring relationships; promotes cultural change that values excellence in research mentoring; supports a network of those engaged in enhancing and studying research mentoring relationships.
    • https://cimerprojectportal.org/#/ offers a host of training curricula.


SPEED MENTORING SESSIONS

Speed mentoring with mentor leaders, open to all faculty:
Register to participate and come ready with questions about any aspect of mentoring or being mentored. Whether you are a trainee at the start of your professional career, a clinician educator, a physician scientist, or a basic investigator, our mentoring leader pair will provide expert advice. You can be a mentee, a beginning mentor, or an experienced mentor—mentorship, whether getting or giving, inevitably involves complexities, conundrums, and quandaries. You will learn not only from the senior mentoring leaders but also from fellow attendees.

  • Friday, May 16, 2025 (1:00-2:00 pm) with Mentoring Facilitators: Helen A. Shih, MD, Medical Director of Proton Therapy Center and Professor of Radiation Oncology; and Holly Khachadoorian-Elia, MD, MBA, Vice Chair of Administration, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology

PEER MENTORING GROUPS

Peer mentoring has been shown to improve support, collaboration and access to resources. Peer mentoring groups empower robust debate, learning, and problem solving in a space of trust and both practical and emotional support.

 

RESOURCES

EXCELLENCE IN MENTORING AWARDS

I. CFD Mentoring Award Recipients and Celebration

The CFD Excellence in Mentoring Awards recognize the stellar mentors in our institution every January by announcing the winners of its various mentoring awards. This opportunity to celebrate the commitment of mentors is deeply appreciated by both nominators and nominees for these awards.

  • This is such a fantastic opportunity to acknowledge so many wonderful people we work with, and I am proud to have contributed. (nominator)
  • I find this initiative to be very useful and helpful. (nominator)
  • This nomination is such a kind gesture from my amazing colleagues who, in addition to being superb clinicians, are generous, seemingly tireless, collaborative, and supportive. (nominee)
  • I am absolutely honored and so incredibly touched. It is the highlight of my career mentoring you; literally the thing that brings me joy each and every day. (nominee)
  • Award or no, reading these letters makes me feel like I hit the jackpot. I couldn’t ask for better colleagues, mentees, friends. (nominee)

 

Mentoring Celebration Keynote: Part of each Mentoring Celebration is devoted to a presentation by an invited keynote speaker. Click on the links below to view these presentations.
II. CFD Excellence in Mentoring Awards Nomination Procedure

The nomination procedure for each of these annual awards is included below under “Learn more.” Please note that a nominator can nominate only ONE candidate per award. Nominators from outside MGH are welcome, but at least one nominator must be from within MGH.

John T. Potts, Jr,. MD, Faculty Mentoring Award

The CFD created this award to recognize and honor senior faculty members with ten or more years of mentoring experience at MGH, in the spirit of further building a culture of mentoring at our hospital. Named after the inaugural recipient, John T. Potts, Jr., MD, HMS and MGH Jackson Distinguished Professor of Clinical Medicine, this $5000 award is given to a faculty member from any MGH department who has contributed to the success of junior faculty members and trainees and demonstrated mentoring excellence through a variety of commitments.

Learn more

 

Rising Mentor Award

This $1000 award recognizes MGH faculty members at the Instructor through Assistant Professor ranks who have developed noteworthy expertise in mentoring since being appointed faculty but who have not yet reached the senior status that the CFD Potts Mentoring Award recognizes. It is given annually to two faculty members from any MGH department who have demonstrated mentoring excellence and contributed to the success of junior faculty members and trainees.

Learn more

 

Ally for Women Faculty Award

To encourage a culture of stronger sponsorship of women and one in which institutional biases are confronted and changed, the CFD created the Ally for Women Faculty Award to recognize allies who support and empower women colleagues in advancing their career and achieving their professional goals and who actively work to create a more open, equitable environment in which women can thrive, grow, and attain major leadership roles. This $1,000 award is given to a faculty member from any MGH department who has demonstrated mentoring excellence toward women colleagues.

Learn more

 

Outstanding Mentor of UiM Faculty and Trainees Award

To encourage a culture of stronger sponsorship of UiM faculty and trainees and one in which institutional biases are confronted and changed, the CFD, in consultation with the MGH Center for Diversity and Inclusion, created this award to recognize faculty who support and empower their UiM colleagues in advancing their career and achieving their professional goals and who actively work to create a more open, equitable environment in which UiMs can thrive, grow, and attain major leadership roles.

This $1,000 award is given to a faculty member from any MGH department who has demonstrated mentoring excellence toward their UiM colleagues.

Learn more

 

Excellence in Clinical Mentoring Award

This $1000 award recognizes clinicians who serve as stellar models of best practice in patient care and provide substantive, ongoing mentorship support to fellow faculty in clinical practice across the inpatient, outpatient, or operating room setting. It is given to a faculty member from any MGH department who has demonstrated mentor excellence toward their clinical colleagues.

Learn more

 

Outstanding Principal Investigator (PI) Mentor of Trainees Award

The MGH Office for Research Careers within the CFD offers this $1000 award to an MGH Principal Investigator (PI) who has contributed to the success of their trainees: postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, undergraduates, or high school student(s) through sustained mentorship. Nominations by present and past trainees are highly encouraged.

Learn more

 

Outstanding Research Fellow Mentor Award

Through this award, the MGH Postdoctoral Division (PDD) within the CFD Office for Research Careers aims to recognize postdoctoral research fellows at MGH who have achieved outstanding mentoring abilities. This $500 award is given to one or more research fellows who have made outstanding contributions in mentoring fellow postdoc trainees, graduate students, college students, and/or high school students.

Learn more

 

DEPARTMENTAL MENTORING PROGRAMS

Examples of Mass General Departmental Mentoring Program Structures:

DERMATOLOGY

The Department of Dermatology at MGH  has a two-tiered mentoring program.  Every department member is assigned a mentor at the time of hire based upon clinical and intellectual interests.  The mentor is at Associate Professor level or above and meets with the mentee at least once per year.  As appropriate, mentorship committees are created.  Additionally, senior leadership meets with each physician at least annually to discuss, among other things, whether the individual feels adequately mentored.  Based upon the feedback, changes in mentors are implemented.

For faculty members with a narrow focus of clinical or research interest, mentors are sought outside of the department and outside of MGH.  On rare occasions, we have perceived that a conflict of interest might exist between an obvious departmental mentor and potential mentee.  In that instance, mentors external to the institution are selected.  The Vice Chair for Academic Affairs interviews the proposed mentor(s) to assure that the academic / clinical interests of the mentee would be supported and to ascertain that the external mentor will commit the necessary time and effort on behalf of the MGH faculty member.

EMERGENCY MEDICINE

The department has launched as of 2021 a pilot program for mentoring early stage Emergency Medicine faculty. The Vice Chair for Faculty Affairs will work with faculty to establish, for each one, a Mentorship committee of 2-5 people, with a mix of members bringing different experiences and strengths. They will support the mentee in developing career goals, timelines, and milestones. At each Annual Meeting with the Chair, the results of this committee work will be reviewed.

MEDICINE Secondary Mentoring Program Pilot

This cross-divisional secondary mentoring program aims to enhance career advancement and satisfaction and will also examine whether such a program leads to greater job satisfaction than access to career development resources alone. Mass General Department of Medicine faculty members with a primary non-investigator role are invited to participate as Mentees; secondary mentors are recruited from a list of senior Department of Medicine faculty members. Participants will be provided career development resources and matched to a secondary mentor for either the entire 12 months of the pilot program or the last 6 months. All participants will be expected to attend one-on-one mentor-mentee virtual meetings monthly for the first 3 months and then at least every 2 months for the remainder of the program, as well as to complete a short survey at 0, 6, and 12 months.

NEUROLOGY

The underlying principle of this mentoring program is that the optimal mentor is a senior faculty member who knows the mentee best. The mentor serves as the mentee’s primary advisor, particularly in the areas of HMS promotion, annual career conference and other ad hoc advisory meetings, and advocacy within the department. To build the pipeline of early-career investigators, research faculty meet once or twice per year with secondary research mentors from outside their own labs/research groups to get useful perspective and problem-solving advice for both scientific and career challenges. The program includes a “Mentor Monthly” newsletter and annual Mentor of the Year awards for mentoring in Clinical Excellence and Investigation. Annual career conferences between mentees and mentors are based on an on-line survey and record-keeping process that create a readily retrievable record of the discussion. Senior departmental leaders hold one-on-one meetings with all mentors to provide equal consideration for every faculty member, with an eye towards assessing promotability.

OBSTETRICS AND GYNECOLOGY

The Obstetrics and Gynecology (OB/GYN) faculty mentoring program was initiated in 2001 as a pilot program, coordinated with the MGH Center for Faculty Development and designed utilizing focus groups and written surveys. The vast majority of faculty actively participated in this voluntary activity. (See Tracy E, Jagsi R, Starr R, Tarbell N, Am J Obstet Gynecol; 2004: 191(6): 1846-50.) The dyad mentor/mentee mentoring model has persisted since 2001, with new faculty members identifying potential mentors and the coordinator facilitating the formal commitment. Every year there is a Grand Rounds dedicated to mentoring. The A.K. Goodman Vincent Obstetrics and Gynecology Faculty Mentoring Award is given to an outstanding faculty member annually. All faculty members are invited to submit nominations. A mentoring committee oversees this award and mentoring activities in the department as a whole. Over the past 20 years participants have participated in a number of surveys that help to refine the program. Current efforts include establishing a speed dating sort of mentoring event, dedicated time for mentoring meetings, and regular updates about individual strategies to enhance mentoring.

The OB/GYN department also participates in the combined BWH/MGH residency program in which faculty mentors are paired with resident mentees.

OPHTHALMOLOGY

The central focus of this mentoring program is to direct and support junior faculty toward promotion. With rare exceptions, every Full-time Instructor, Assistant Professor and Associate Professor is assigned two mentors from among Professors, Associate Professors, and Service and Site Directors. Basic science faculty are assigned a clinical mentor as well as a research one, to gain greater insight into translational research. Both mentees and mentors can confidentially communicate with the Manager of Faculty Affairs, who shares concerns/suggestions with the Mentoring Oversight Board, made up of four faculty members and overseen by the Chair. This group assigns mentor-mentee pairs and selects the annual recipient of the Excellence in Mentoring Award. Surveys are run annually to gauge the effectiveness of the program and further develop it based on faculty feedback. This program received a 2019 HMS Program Award for a Culture of Excellence in Mentoring (PACEM).

ORTHOPAEDICS

As we continually strive to advance the field of orthopedics and foster academic growth in our department, we recognize the impact mentorship can have on one's academic career. This 2024 pilot program is designed to bridge the gap between our more experienced faculty and those who are eager to learn by creating a collaborative research environment. Through this program, our mentees (senior residents, year 3 and 4; post docs; junior faculty) will have an opportunity to learn the MGB research culture, expand their professional networks, and accelerate academic development. Interested mentees fill out an application and are matched by the Orthopaedic Mentorship Committee with the most appropriate mentor. The official timeline of the relationship is 1 year, but mentorship can be ongoing beyond target goals. The mentee is responsible for initiating meetings with the mentor and completing quarterly surveys.

PEDIATRICS

The mentoring program in the Department of Pediatrics at Mass General for Children is directed by Drs. Madhu Misra and Jim Perrin. A key component of the program is a mentor-mentee match that occurs annually. Mentees are matched with mentors and meet as needed (typically at least quarterly) for discussions around career development, leadership, research, clinical practice, teaching, administration, work-life balance, and advocacy, among others. They are also provided with basic resources for a successful mentoring relationship. An annual survey is used to make necessary improvements to the program. To recognize the efforts of our mentors, the program solicits nominations for an annual Excellence in Mentoring Award. The program has recently expanded to include a mock study section to review and provide feedback for K and first R-level grants being submitted by faculty.

RADIOLOGY

This program provides dedicated one-on-one mentoring and the creation of a mentorship network as well as access to opportunities for career development and promotion. Mentees include new faculty, Instructors and Assistant Professors, both clinical radiologists and research faculty. A unique part of the program is cross-division mentorship, which allows mentor and mentee to gain an outside perspective, increases the openness within the department and across divisions, and avoids conflicts of interest between faculty members in the same division. The mentee is encouraged to create a "Mentorship Board of Directors”—a list of advisors and mentors with different expertise who may be from different divisions, departments or institutions, medical or even non-medical. The program includes a yearly mentoring award. It received a 2020 HMS Program Award for a Culture of Excellence in Mentoring (PACEM).

SURGERY

The Department of Surgery offers mentoring programs tailored to faculty and trainees at different stages of their careers. Each program is designed to help individuals achieve their academic and personal goals by offering guidance, support, and encouragement, while promoting a positive and inclusive scholarly environment. The Junior Faculty Mentoring Program is designed to support faculty who are in the early years of their career. Each faculty member is assigned a mentoring team comprised of 3-4 faculty members, each representing a different aspect of the mentees’ interests. Meetings are scheduled 3 times a year but mentors are always available for consultation. The Refresh Mentoring Program was created for mid-career faculty who may benefit from a fresh review and perspective from a mentoring team comprised of 2-3 senior faculty. The Reanalyze Mentoring Program is designed for non-clinical Research Faculty and is structured to encourage greater community and collaboration. There are monthly sessions centered around topics of interest (i.e. grant writing, publishing high impact papers, industry and pharmaceutical interactions, etc).


DEPARTMENTAL MENTOR LEADERS

Mentoring Leader Round Table: Mentor leaders meet on a bimonthly basis to share mentoring program structures and initiatives, successes and challenges. These meetings consist of focused discussion topics, mentor trainings and/or invited speakers, including Vineet Chopra, MD, MSc, FHM (Michigan Medicine) and Jennifer A. Haythornthwaite, MA, PhD (Johns Hopkins Medicine).