Greening the academic garden
Schulich Medicine & Dentistry’s unique faculty mentorship program comes of age
By Pat Morden, BA’75
“In an academic medical centre, 80 per cent of our work is clinical. But through mentorship, we can ensure that young faculty members have access to advice on how to continue to find joy and passion in the 20 per cent of time they spend on academic work.”
Dr. Laura Foxcroft, Assistant Dean, Faculty Wellbeing, is an enthusiastic proponent of mentorship as a way to enrich the careers of mentees and mentors. She has played a key role in developing and implementing Schulich Medicine & Dentistry’s unique clinical mentorship program.
“We know that people who are mentored throughout their careers will experience less burnout, greater job satisfaction and increased productivity. Being a mentor energizes senior faculty members and is highly regarded as an academic contribution.”
— Dr. Laura Foxcroft
“We know that people who are mentored throughout their careers will experience less burnout, greater job satisfaction and increased productivity,” she said. “Being a mentor energizes senior faculty members and is highly regarded as an academic contribution. From the School’s perspective, we know that supportive cultures thrive.”
The program was created in 2010 – the first of its kind in Canada – and became part of the Conditions of Appointment for faculty in 2018. Implementation was uneven across the School until 2020, when a mentorship oversight committee was formed under Dr. Foxcroft’s leadership.
Each clinical faculty member, regardless of where they practise, is entitled to have a mentorship committee consisting of a mentor from their home department and a mentor from another department who has the same academic role and similar interests. “Finding a successful mentorship relationship is like dating,” said Dr. Foxcroft. “You can’t expect a perfect fit every time and a good relationship takes work.”
To help mentees find a mentor whose interests align, the School offers an online matching program.
Once formed, mentoring committees meet twice per year to help mentees problem solve, discuss potential research projects, identify new opportunities for career enhancement, and check in about well being. Dr. Foxcroft says that sometimes the best advice is about when to turn down opportunities so that mentees don’t become overwhelmed.
Another key component is to prepare assistant professors for the promotion process. “Especially in a non-academic centre, patient care can completely take over your life and you have no time for academic activities,” said Dr. Caroline Hamm, Associate Professor and a Windsor-based oncologist. “If you don’t plan your career, it just happens. Mentorship gives you an opportunity to sit back and ask, ‘what do I want out of my career?’”
Hamm was approached by several colleagues in Oncology to sit on their mentorship committees. Realizing that the model would have to be adapted in Windsor, she introduced a peer-group mentorship program modelled on one used at Stanford. The idea has now spread from Oncology to other departments.
Foxcroft, who believes that “everybody can benefit from being and having a mentor at all career stages,” is now piloting mentorship committees for associate and full professors. A working group has been formed to study the impact of the mentorship program.
Foxcroft is confident the results will be positive. “I believe mentorship is keeping our faculty excited about their academic careers, with a desire to move forward in innovation, teaching and research.”
