Mentoring Committee Open House to celebrate the National Mentoring Month!

The NORDP Mentoring Committee (MC) held another successful annual open house on Jan 15, 2026. More than 20 prospective and current Mentoring Committee members joined to hear from experienced colleagues about the psychological benefits of mentoring and what different MC roles entail. 

A lively panel discussion centered around “A Day in the Life” of a Mentoring Committee volunteer showcased eight distinct MC roles and what it meant to be a volunteer in each role. Here is a recap of the panelists’ responses:

Matt Schwartz is the senior program manager for faculty development at UMass Chan Medical School, who manages a faculty development and mentorship program for early-career faculty. He feels the Mentor Training Team (MTT) is a natural place where he can jump in and help support better mentoring for RD professionals. The MTT meets throughout the year but the main focus is in February and March, when an intense mentor training workshop is offered to the NORDP members. The training regimens (two mentor trainings per week) are offered using evidence-based practices adopted from CIMER for RD. As a volunteer, Matt learns how to facilitate and gains experience through co-facilitating with someone who is more experienced.

Jet LeBlanc, Lead Coach and Team Development Consultant at ATG, and Sujatha Koduvayur, Director, Research Development at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, are both volunteer conveners of two different Peer Mentoring Groups (PMGs)—Coaching and RD and AI in RD, respectively. They reflected on the fun they had interacting with their PMG members and noted that the time commitment is between 2 and 4 hours per month, including the 1-hour monthly online meeting with the group. PMGs are unique because they are not time-bound to a program year and NORDP members can join a PMG at any time!

Jess Brassard, Director of Research Development and Communication, serves on the Mentoring Committee Marketing and Communication (McMc) subcommittee and the broader Communication Working Group (CWG), though serving on the CWG is not required for McMc members. Jess shared that the McMc has one monthly meeting per month apart from the full Mentoring Committee meeting. During meetings, the subcommittee collaboratively drafts content for blog posts which profile mentoring activities and Mentoring Committee offerings—about one blog post per month is typical. This is a fun and easy fit for NORDP members who like writing. To join the co-working fun on the McMc, send a note to mentorprogram@nordp.org.

Vess Vassileva-Clarke, Director of Research Development at University of Michigan – Dearborn, highlighted the opportunity to serve on the Match Team. The Match Team’s efforts are focused during a short, intense period once a year, usually in April–May. The work involves serving as humans-in-the-loop for the mentoring matching program algorithm (housed in Wisdom Share) to make sure optimal matches are made. Joining the Mentoring Match team can be a short-term commitment and can be satisfying to know that you’ve helped connect people to start new relationships. To join this team and help with annual matching, attend the April or May Mentoring Committee meeting and let the group know you are interested, or send a message to mentorprogram@nordp.org!

The open house highlighted Mentoring Committee membership, activities, and events. As a reminder: 

• The PMGs are open at any time. 
• The 2026-27 mentoring year for dyads and cohorts will conclude in June. New matched dyads and cohorts for the 2026-27 mentoring year will launch in July 2026. The application portal will be open in May—look for the announcement in the NORDP Monthly newsletter.

The Mentoring Committee is looking forward to a productive 2026 with volunteers!