Employees make the School of Dentistry (SoD) community a special place for learners and patients. Our goal is to create and sustain a culture of respect, inclusiveness, innovation, and continued learning. As such, it is critical employees be supported to aid in their professional success and satisfaction across their career.
Mentoring is a critical component of career advancement and engagement. The UCSF School of Dentistry has developed a program to improve mentoring for early career faculty. The primary goal is to enhance the early career faculty’s professional development and satisfaction and to contribute to the development of the mentee’s research, teaching, patient care skills, and networking opportunities.
All associate and full professors are invited to participate as mentors in the program. The mentoring program will pair early career faculty members with a team of senior faculty members, each of whom will be selected by the early career faculty member with the advice provided by the department chair.
2025 Program Session
If you are interested in participated as mentor or mentee in the UCSF SOD Early Career Faculty Mentoring Program, please complete the interest form by Oct. 15.
Early Career Faculty Mentoring Program Session recording
Program Powerpoint
Program Overview
Early career faculty at the assistant rank in any series, with appointments of 51% or greater, are eligible to participate in the SoD Mentoring Program. Each eligible faculty member will be assigned to a faculty team whose members will serve as mentors in the following areas as appropriate: clinical, education and mentoring, research and scholarly activity, service and leadership.
Mentoring requires active committed engagement on the part of both mentors and mentees. Faculty mentors and mentees will commit to participate for one year, which can be renewed for additional years with mutual agreement.
Mentoring Team Composition
- Early career faculty member (mentee)
- Established (full rank) faculty member in the same series and department/division as mentee with no more than 2 other current early career mentees (Lead Career Mentor)
- Mid-career (associate) or Established (full rank) faculty member in the same series but different department/division as mentee (mentor); this mid-career or established faculty mentor can be someone outside of SoD.
- Near peer mentor (late assistant or early associate rank) faculty member with some similar teaching, scholarship
Mentoring Facilitators
The School of Dentistry Mentoring Facilitators, as established by Campus-wide UCSF Faculty Mentorship Program, will be the point person to guide mentees in developing their mentoring team.
Timeline
12-month program, from January through December.
Applications start in September.
Roles and Responsibilities
Mentor Roles
- Advise mentee to set up professional goals, career advancement, and UCSF values.
- Advise mentee to develop academic scholarship, research programs, clinical and/or teaching skills.
- Advocate of professional networking and grant opportunities.
- Participate in mentor training.
Mentee's Responsibilities
- Identify the developmental goals/skills for which guidance is sought (See Appendix B – Mentee Self-Assessment Worksheet)
- Keep CV up to date at least quarterly in accordance with UCSF standards.
- Develop agenda prior to each session and discuss with or send to Lead Mentor at least one week ahead of the meeting.
- Accept responsibility for one’s own development and success. Initiate and follow through in both setting and completing agreed-upon short-term and long-term goals.
- Manage up. Take notes at meetings, send a summary of action items after each meeting to attendees, send agendas ahead of meetings, and send reminders to mentoring team members.
- Be open to hear and solicit new ideas and suggestions and consider thoughtful feedback.
- Respect personal boundaries.
Mentors and mentee agree to abide by the following set of guidelines:
- Commit to making the time to meet on a regular basis as dictated by the program.
- Keep the content of conversations confidential except for explicitly agreed upon specific items.
- Create an environment of trust and open communication.
- Provide each other with honest, direct, constructive, and respectful feedback.
- Discuss and attempt to resolve any conflicts as they arise.
- Attend kick-off session.
Mentoring Areas of Focus
The SoD Early Career Faculty Mentoring Program may include the following topics of interest that align with key developmental areas for faculty:
- Being faculty at UCSF and building an inclusive and collaborative culture
- Building a clinical practice
- Building a research and scholarly portfolio
- Becoming an educator
- Providing service
- Advancement Planning
- Time Management