Faculty Mentoring

College Peer Mentors

Appointed by the dean of each academic college, College Peer Mentors collaborate with the Assistant Provost for Faculty Success to advance the effectiveness and impact of faculty mentoring across the institution and within college contexts. College Peer Mentors create networking opportunities and organize college-specific professional development events.

Faculty Mentoring Resources

Review Faculty Mentoring Resources (PDF, 35KB) for mentored faculty (including all faculty, tenure-eligible faculty, and term faculty) as well as faculty mentors. The Office of the Vice President for Research also has a curated list of mentoring resources for faculty, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, and Professional & Scientific Staff and links to other external resources. Visit the Mentorship Resources website to learn more.

Faculty Mentor Roles, Responsibilities, and Expectations

The Office of the Senior Vice President and Provost recognizes the importance of supporting its faculty through mentoring. Guidance for faculty mentors about roles, responsibilities, and expectations (DOC, 26KB) as well as a Faculty Mentor Guide (DOC, 2MB) and workshops are available. The goal is to equip Faculty Mentors with needed information and tools to increase the impact of faculty mentoring and cultivate effective mentoring practices and optimize mentoring relationships.

Exemplary Faculty Mentor Awards

To acknowledge the critical role that faculty mentoring plays at our institution, the Office of the Senior Vice President and Provost seeks to recognize senior colleagues who excel as mentors with our annual Exemplary Faculty Mentor Awards. Mentors who have demonstrated extraordinary dedication to the success of their mentee(s) are eligible. This award seeks to recognize senior colleagues who have gone above and beyond the usual expectations of a mentor. To nominate your mentor, please follow these instructions.

Faculty Mentoring Program for First-year Tenure-eligible Faculty at the Rank of Assistant and Associate Professor

As we support first-year, tenure-eligible faculty through mentoring, the goal is to ensure successful faculty reviews including preliminary/third-year, promotion, and tenure. In furtherance of this goal and our institutional strategic goals, this Faculty Mentoring Program for first-year tenure-eligible faculty aims to increase faculty retention and success (e.g., promotion, sense of belonging, retention, developing future mentors and leaders).

Read more in this program overview (DOC, 36KB).

Faculty mentors and mentored faculty are asked to complete the Mentoring Agreement form (DOC,1.4MB).

Faculty Mentoring Initiative for Early and Mid-career Faculty

As we support early and mid-career faculty through mentoring, the goal is to ensure successful faculty advancement, promotion, and inclusion. In furtherance of this goal and our institutional strategic goals, this Faculty Mentoring Initiative for early and mid-career faculty seeks to increase faculty retention and success (e.g., promotion and advancement, sense of belonging, developing future mentors and leaders). This program is designed for:

• early career faculty at the rank of Assistant Professor (term and tenure-eligible)
• mid-career faculty at the rank of Associate Professor (term and tenure-eligible)

Read more in this program overview document (DOC, 28KB). 

Faculty mentors and mentored faculty are asked to complete the Mentoring Agreement form (DOC,1.4MB). 

Smile and Write

A free online program open to faculty and staff.

Join us as we work to accomplish our writing goals together. We will leverage peer accountability to help provide you the space to work on projects, manuscripts, curriculum, etc. Additionally, Smile and Write is a way to connect with your peers. Putting these dates on your calendar and having the peer accountability is a way to carve out time for you and your career progression.

Smile and Write format:

• Register ahead of time using the link highlighted below. Upon registration, you will be sent a zoom link to use for the session.
• Once you have logged in, we ask that your video be turned on. Doing this helps to assure accountability and can keep us from distraction.
• At the start of each session, we state our goals that we want to accomplish. At the end of each session we take a brief bit of time to share progress made towards those goals.

Registration link 

Professional development programs

The Office of the Senior Vice President and Provost organizes a series of professional development workshops annually on a variety of topics. A special program on promotion and tenure includes a presentation on university policies, and small group discussions with senior colleagues and department chairs. Additional workshops on documenting and boosting research visibility/impact are offered in collaboration with the University Library.

2023-2024 Schedule

• Previous workshops

Virtual mentoring through the NCFDD

Virtual mentoring is provided through Iowa State’s institutional membership in the NCFDD. Resources include weekly “Monday Motivator” emails and monthly teleworkshops. Activate your sub-membership (PDF, 376KB).

Additional Resources

• University of Michigan Center for Research on Learning and Teaching
• Virginia Tech ADVANCE