UMass ADVANCE is seeking nominations for its 2027 Faculty Peer Mentoring Awards and Equitable Practices in Collaboration (EPiC) Awards. All faculty members and librarians are encouraged to help the campus honor colleagues for their commitment to inclusive mentoring and equitable collaboration.

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Now in their eighth year, the ADVANCE Faculty Peer Mentoring Awards are bestowed annually to outstanding mentors in each school/college headed by a dean, the UMass Libraries and other cross-campus academic units. The awards highlight the critically important work nominees perform in supporting their faculty colleagues’ professional development and success. Nominees may excel in mentoring faculty in their department, school/college, or across the university. As ADVANCE is focused on building a more inclusive faculty, nominations should explicitly state how the mentoring improves equity and inclusion at any of these levels.

The ADVANCE Equitable Practices in Collaboration (EPiC) Award recognizes and promotes learning from faculty and librarian groups that work collectively to cultivate effective and equitable collaboration practices. Groups may be part of formal organizational units (e.g., research centers or institutes, working groups) or informal collectives (e.g., mutual mentoring groups, proposal teams).

Faculty Mentoring awardees will each receive $250, and EPiC awardees will receive $500. All awardees will be profiled on the ADVANCE website and honored during the ADVANCE Annual Distinguished Lecture in the spring of 2027, the date for which will be announced later.

Nominations for faculty peer mentors or self-nominations for EPiC faculty groups must be received by Monday, Jan. 11, 2027.

For questions, contact [email protected].