The ADVANCE team is pleased to solicit nominations for the 2023 ADVANCE Faculty Peer Mentoring Awards. One award will be made per college (including the libraries) in order to recognize the critically important work faculty members perform in mentoring and supporting their colleagues’ professional development and success.
Winners will receive $250, be profiled on the ADVANCE website, and congratulated by the Provost during the ADVANCE Annual Distinguished Lecture with Enobong (Anna) Branch, senior vice president for Equity at Rutgers University, on March 28, 2023 at 4:00pm.
Criteria
This award recognizes the vital role faculty play in mentoring their colleagues. Faculty mentoring can take many different forms: mentoring relationships can be informal or formal, can occur through workshops or professionalization seminars, or through one-on-one meetings or mutual mentoring groups. All of these forms of faculty mentoring are eligible for the mentor award.
We welcome nominations that detail how faculty members excel as faculty mentors. Some examples include providing advice for career development of faculty colleagues through individual mentoring, participation or development of the infrastructure needed to establish mutual mentoring teams, or any other individual or group mentoring approaches. The mentoring provided could address a range of topics, including intellectual development, publication development and submittal, grantsmanship, creative works, teaching, mentoring students, supporting faculty for awards, developing public engagement activities, community building relationships, and inclusion and equity.
Nominees should be faculty members who have excelled in providing faculty mentoring in their department, college, or across the university. Because ADVANCE is focused on building a more inclusive faculty, nominations should explicitly state how the mentoring improves equity and inclusion within the college and/or the university. Our goal is to provide these awards yearly, to ensure that the critical work of faculty mentoring is rewarded by ADVANCE and recognized by the university.
Nomination Process
Any member of the faculty may nominate another faculty member, in a tenure-track or non tenure-track position for this award. Please note that self-nominations are not accepted and members of the ADVANCE team are not eligible for this award. The ADVANCE Faculty Peer Mentor Awards are for individual faculty. (For collectives and groups, ADVANCE is creating a new award demonstrating excellence in shared decision-making. This collective award opportunity will be announced during the ADVANCE Annual Distinguished Lecture on March 28, 2023.)
A nomination should be accompanied by the following documents:
- A letter from the primary nominator, not exceeding two pages, explaining why the nominee is deserving of this award.
- The nominee’s CV.
- A letter of support from faculty members other than the nominator, not exceeding two pages. The letter can have multiple signatories, for example, if the nominated person is a member of a mutual mentoring group, or leads a mentoring program.
There should be no more than one nomination letter and one optional letter of support in any nomination packet.
To submit a nomination, complete the brief survey at the link below and be prepared to upload your documents. Nominations are due January 31, 2023.
Award recipients will be selected by college specific committees, including a member appointed by the Dean of the college, an ADVANCE team member, and a current ADVANCE Faculty Fellow. The committee membership and their recommendations will reflect ADVANCE goals for a diverse and inclusive community. Prior to the formulation of recommendations, the Committee will be briefed on guidelines for an equitable review process, confidentiality, and conflict of interest.
Contact Program Manager, Donna Baron at dbaron@umass.edu with any questions.
