Faculty Mentoring

College Peer Mentors

Appointed by the dean of each academic college, College Peer Mentors collaborate with the Assistant Provost for Faculty Development 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.

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. If you would like to nominate your mentor for this award, please fill out the Nomination Form (PDF, 352KB) and email it to exemplary@iastate.edu by February 28, 2023.

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). 

Term Faculty Learning Community Pilot

A new pilot for the 2022-2023 academic year is a Term Faculty Learning Community (TFLC), which will afford early-career, term faculty an opportunity to cultivate leadership skills, build connections, and pursue their professional goals. The TFLC’s purpose and focus aligns with the university’s mission to “create, share, and apply knowledge.” The TFLC also dovetails with the goals outlined in the 2022-2031 strategic goals and furthers four thematic pillars: foster innovative solutions, education experience, knowledge and discovery, and community engagement.

Read more in this program overview document.

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.

Spring 2023 schedule 

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.

2022-2023 Schedule

• PDF version of schedule (132KB)

• Previous workshops

Virtual mentoring through the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (NCFDD)

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

Additional Resources

• Exemplary Junior Faculty Mentoring Programs at Cornell University (PDF) 
• Faculty Mentoring Handbook from NSF ADVANCE at University of Rhode Island (PDF, 447KB) 
• Getting the Most out of Mentoring - Presentation handout (2015) (PDF, 490KB)
• Mentee Needs Assessment (DOC, 26KB) 
• Mentoring Task Force Report (2006) (PDF, 52KB)
• Mutual Mentoring Guide, by Sorcinelli and Yun, UMass Amherst (redirected from University of North Texas) (PDF) 
• The Mentoring Relationship (PDF) 
• University of Michigan ADVANCE - Giving and Getting Career Advice: A Guide for Junior and Senior Faculty (PDF)
• University of Michigan Center for Research on Learning and Teaching
• Virginia Tech ADVANCE