Posted by The Mentoring Committee
In April 2018, Etta Ward and Jan Abramson received travel awards through the NORDP Strategic Alliances Committee to participate in National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN) facilitator training in Madison, Wisconsin. Trainings were based on the Entering Mentoring curriculum, a product of a 5-year, NIH-funded U01, which has now entered its second 5-year cycle. After completing training, Jan and Etta presented a White Paper to the NORDP Board of Directors, began to share the concepts and competencies at NORDP conferences and started implementing the strategies outlined in the White Paper. Simultaneously, the Mentoring Committee began to integrate NRMN concepts into resources for mentoring program participants. By early 2019, the Mentoring Committee had collaborated with the Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research (CIMER), a core of the U01, and received permission to adapt the evidence-based mentor training program and curriculum for research development professionals. The work NORDP is doing in this area will have a wide impact: once completed, the curriculum will be publicly available, at no cost, through CIMER and will be the first curriculum developed for research professional staff.
In late January, which was also National Mentoring Month, Jan and Etta reached Level 2: Certified Facilitator status from CIMER. The certification process required completing facilitator training, facilitating multiple Entering Mentoring trainings, demonstrating evidence of mastery through evaluations, applying and being accepted. They received notice of becoming certified on the same day – which was Etta’s birthday. That was fully a happy coincidence, as both submitted applications separately and at different times.
At this year’s NORDP Conference, the Mentoring Committee will present a 4-hour workshop designed to introduce NORDP members to the Entering Mentoring curriculum and competencies. During summer 2020 the Mentoring Committee will collaborate with the NORDP Professional Development Committee to present a series of on-line workshops to complete all of the Entering Mentoring training modules. This will give RD professionals a sense of the materials, so they can integrate the competencies into their work with faculty, staff and other professionals.
The Mentoring Committee includes one other certified facilitator (Paula Carney) and two trained facilitators (Kathy Partlow and Erica Severan-Webb). The Mentoring Committee would like to add trained NRMN or CIMER facilitators to a resource list. If you have gone through NRMN or CIMER facilitator training, please let the committee know by emailing mentorprogram@nordp.org.
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