At NYU Langone, the Office of Mentoring and Faculty Development is committed to guiding junior faculty in exploring and defining career pathways as they pursue nontenure-eligible positions. Our mentoring programs guide nontenure-eligible junior faculty toward achieving professional fulfillment, including identifying necessary milestones, facilitating networking, and assessing progress toward promotion.

Faculty mentors are dedicated to addressing the needs of nontenure-eligible assistant professors who are clinician investigator educators and research educators on the scholar tracks. Nontenure-eligible faculty can have a single mentor or more than one.

To meet departmental and NYU Grossman School of Medicine expectations for academic career advancement, this may include defining a role within the department, as well as clinical work, teaching, research, leadership and administration, and scholarly productivity. Guidance on topics such as work–life balance, personal satisfaction, and professional fulfillment is also appropriate.

We encourage mentors to provide guidance that reflects their mentees’ career interests. Resources include the faculty mentoring toolbox, as well as pathway-specific and focused documents, for the mentorship of faculty educators, nontenure-eligible researchers, and the more traditional scholar-track faculty.

Mentoring Models for Nontenure-Eligible Faculty

Mentoring models for nontenure-eligible faculty may include one-on-one mentoring, mentoring teams, and group sessions held by one or more faculty members for several junior faculty with similar career interests. 

Group development programs may include the following:

• lunchtime “brown bag” discussions
• dinner programs with internal or external speakers
• participation in NYU Grossman School of Medicine faculty development programs
• webinars or online seminars
• journal clubs and other discussions of relevant material

Establishing a Mentoring Relationship for Nontenure-Eligible Faculty

An effective mentoring relationship for a nontenure-eligible faculty member should reflect the mentee’s career path, what the mentee seeks from the program, and the mentor’s expertise and experience. Such insights can be gained through faculty surveys supplied in the faculty mentoring toolbox.

The mentor need not be tenured. If there are two or more mentors, they should balance each other’s strengths, skills, contacts, and expertise.

An NYU Grossman School of Medicine mentoring champion, with input from the department chair and possibly the mentee, matches a mentee with a mentor or mentors and outlines expectations. The mentee may provide input, but he or she should not be solely responsible for choosing a mentor or mentors.

The mentoring encounter form for nontenure-eligible faculty may be used as an outline to guide discussions and document what happens at meetings. Mentoring meetings must be held at least once a year, but ideally two or more meetings occur.