Award for Outstanding Faculty Mentoring

Award Description

Established in AY 2022-23, the Award for Outstanding Faculty Mentoring recognizes and honors faculty who go above and beyond in guiding and advocating for their colleagues, strengthening collaboration and excellence across the university.

In recognition of the vital service that mentorship, both formal and informal, provides to the university community, the Office of Faculty Affairs (OFA) is seeking nominations for outstanding faculty mentorship by an individual faculty member. OFA seeks to recognize up to five mentors across campus. Those selected for recognition will receive a $500 award to be applied to their professional development funds.Ìý

  • Nominees may have served as a mentor through the ACUMent program in the Office of Faculty Affairs or within their department. Mentors can be formally assigned or serve in an informal capacity.
  • Nominees must have mentored one or more ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½Æƽâ°æÏÂÔØ faculty.
  • Nominees must be permanently employed faculty who mentor tenured, tenure-track, or teaching and clinical faculty.Ìý
  • Mentors are not allowed to self-nominate.

Awardees will demonstrate many of the following qualities and activities of an outstanding mentor:

  1. Support: Encouraging growth and achievement by providing a supportive environment where challenges, successes, and failures can be openly shared and examined. Helping mentees to explore their skills and interests so as to assist them in better defining and attaining their goals.
  2. Information and Advice: Setting aside regular time to share knowledge, experiences, and wisdom to guide mentees in reaching their academic, professional, and/or personal goals. Making themselves available to provide regular and constructive feedback on mentees’ work. Ìý
  3. Professional Exposure: Involving and/or supporting mentees in professional/leadership opportunities and readily sharing knowledge of other such opportunities with mentees. If the mentor shares research interests, including mentees in publications, grants, presentations, and/or expositions when appropriate. Providing valuable access and opportunities by facilitating academic, professional, and personal contacts.
  4. Inclusion: Creating access by sharing knowledge of the political landscape and power dynamics in the university and (where relevant) the discipline as well as effective strategies for navigating those structures. If the mentee is from an underrepresented, first-generation, or marginalized group, paying attention to the development of skills and support networks for overcoming institutional barriers they may face.
  5. Role Modeling: Maintaining high standards for excellence as an engaged university community member. Engaging in respectful relationships with colleagues, earlier-career colleagues, and students. Acknowledging power differentials in professional relationships and behaving with integrity. Encouraging mentees to adopt similar principles of professional behavior.
  1. Any ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½Æƽâ°æÏÂÔØ faculty faculty member may initiate a nomination or nominations. Ìý
  2. The nomination packet must include the following: Ìý
    1. A nomination letter addressed to the Outstanding Faculty Mentoring Award Committee. The letter should include the following: Ìý
      1. Name, title, department of the nominator Ìý
      2. Name, title, department of the nominee Ìý
      3. A clear description of the contributions that make the nominee deserving of this award based on the above criteria. ÌýÌý
    2. A letter of support from an additional faculty member. If the mentee is the nominator, the additional faculty member could be another mentee or a colleague who knows the mentor’s mentorship well.
    3. The deadline for nominations is March 17, 2025 at 5:00 p.m.

Save the nomination as a single PDF file and email the nomination packet to OFAFDS@Colorado.EDU. The nomination packet will be shared with each nominee after the selection process is complete.

A review committee consisting of 3-5 members drawn from OFA and from previous Outstanding Faculty Mentoring Award winners. The review will be based on the award criteria listed above. Overall, the awardees will be selected based on the nominated faculty member’s excellence as a mentor to faculty and the quality of the mentor-mentee relationship(s).Ìý

Awardees and nominees will be notified by April 1, 2025.Ìý

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ÌýÌýPast/Current Awardees

Read about the inaugural Outstanding Faculty Mentor Awards presentation on ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½Æƽâ°æÏÂÔØ Today!

  • Anu Sharma, Professor and Associate Chair, Department of Speech, Language & Hearing Sciences
    ÌýÌý"I was feeling isolated as being the only woman of color faculty member in my department while also trying to care for a very young child during the pandemic. Dr. Sharma gave me great leads on finding childcare. As we continued to meet during our monthly mentoring meetings, my feelings of isolation began to wane as I formed a meaningful connection with a senior faculty member, who was also a mother and woman of color."
    ÌýÌýÌý"She exemplifies so many qualities of what a mentor should be: an advocate, an opportunity broker, a cheerleader, a resource provider, a compassionate leader, and a friend."
    Ìý
  • Eric Frew, Professor and Associate Chair, Ann & H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences
    ÌýÌý"My decision to come to CU (and turn down many other attractive offers) came down largely to the wonderful interactions I had with Eric that conveyed a strong commitment to capable and willing mentorship, as well as to a mindset of excellence and inclusion."Ìý
    ÌýÌý"Eric's insider knowledge and natural tendency to see nuanced diversity of perspectives on complex issues makes him an especially good (and trustworthy) source of information for young faculty member who don't yet know what they don't know."
    Ìý
  • Mileidis "Millie" Gort, Professor, School of Education
    ÌýÌý"Dr. Gort is a masterful mentor who manages to exceed anyone's highest expectations for guidance."
    ÌýÌý"Dr. Gort challenges the competitive neoliberal practices of academic that promote and reward individualism by working collaboratively and in community to support the generations of scholars of color that will come after her."
    Ìý
  • Christine Macdonald, Associate Teaching Professor, Program for Writing & Rhetoric
    ÌýÌý"Thanks to Christy's encouragement and constant support, I became a better and more informed teacher, broadened my professional network, and added a publication to my CV."
    ÌýÌý"Christy has done so much for our faculty that listing all of it would make for a very long letter. She has served as a mentor for everyone in our program."
    Ìý
  • Deepti Misri, Associate Professor and Associate Chair, Department of Women & Gender Studies
    ÌýÌý"Deepti has created a community for so many of us junior faculty of color who identify as women, queer, trans, and gender expansive."
    ÌýÌý"Deepti has spent countless hours encouraging, caring for, and ultimately building up so many of us junior faculty. This kind of mentorship is rare and has no name. I continue to sit in gratitude for the spaces she has helped to cultivate for us--space of belonging, being seen, being valued."
    Ìý
  • Mithi Mukherjee, Associate Professor, Department of History
    ÌýÌý"Prof. Mukherjee dedicated countless hours of her time to academically but also personally mentoring me to reach standards of excellence."
    ÌýÌý"Professor Mukherjee has contributed in several meaningful ways towards community building and support for junior faculty. I experienced this personally at a meeting of Faculty of Color. She offered to serve as a mentor to me and also to convene meetings with other South Asians on campus."