The Center for Faculty Innovation supports faculty peer mentoring through workshops and other programs that help faculty develop their mentoring skills and build their mentoring networks. We also connect new faculty with mentors in the New Faculty Academy (NFA).

The CFI's approach to mentoring follows the mutual mentoring model proposed by Sorcinelli, Yun, and Baldi (2016).

According to this approach, mentoring relationships

• Are embedded in larger networks of mentoring partnerships with a range of persons, serving a range of mentoring needs
• Focus on specialized areas of expertise or experience instead of being relationships for all professional needs
• Have benefits for mentors as well as mentees
• Endow mentees with agency over what a mentoring relationship should offer them
• Recognize that mentors and mentees are equal mentoring partners instead of authority figures vs. protégés

We recognize that all faculty, at all stages of their careers, need various types of mentoring. Chapman’s (2018) concept of the “Thrive Mosaic” summarizes these diverse mentoring needs well.

CFI announces workshops, roundtables, and faculty learning communities on mentoring on the CFI website's event page and in the CFI Weekly Digest email. If you want to receive notice about upcoming mentoring programs, please add your name to our notification list.

As part of JMU’s New Faculty Academy (NFA), the CFI connects 30 to 50 NFA participants with peer mentors every year. The mentors are from different departments and ideally different colleges than the mentees. Envisioned as complementary to departmental mentoring, the main purpose of the NFA mentoring relationship is for new faculty to form broader institution-wide connections, encounter different perspectives, and experience psycho-social support from a friendly, supportive colleague.

If you want to be an NFA mentor, please discuss this with your academic unit head and email Andreas Broscheid.

Introduction to NFA Mentoring

This program consists of a short video, a reading, and reflection questions, followed by an optional debrief via Zoom. Those who participate in the debrief conversation will receive a confirmation that they completed the session.

You may be interested in this online program if you are a new or continuing as an NFA mentor.

Sign Up to Participate

Susan L. Phillips and Susan T. Dennison. Faculty Mentoring: A Practical Manual for Mentors, Mentees, Administrators, and Faculty Developers. Sterling, VA: Stylus, 2015. (Available through JMU Libraries.) Collection of brief chapters for mentors, mentees, and unit heads. Good starting point on mentoring.

Sorcinelli, Mary Deane, Jung H. Yun, and Brian Baldi. “Mutual Mentoring Guide.” Amherst: The Institute for Teaching Excellence & Faculty Development, University of Massachusetts, 2016.

Lois J. Zachary. The Mentor’s Guide: Facilitating Effective Learning Relationship. Third Edition. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 2022. (Available through JMU Libraries.) Basics of good mentoring practice that combines corporate and academic perspectives.