At NYU Langone, the Office of Mentoring and Faculty Development supports junior faculty who wish to pursue tenure-eligible positions. We offer mentorship and other resources that help them work toward their professional goals.

Mentors for tenure-eligible faculty support investigator educators and investigator clinician educators through the use of annual letters, surveys, and guides available in the faculty mentoring toolbox.

The mentoring team for tenure-eligible faculty must include at least two senior faculty members, chosen for their expertise and experience. Ideally, most committee members should be tenured faculty, but at least one must be. At least one committee member should be from the mentee’s department.

A mentoring team guides a junior faculty member in defining research activities, clinical pursuits, career paths, and the milestones necessary for success. Mentors can speak to the expectations of the department and NYU Grossman School of Medicine regarding the clinical, teaching, research, and scholarly productivity pertinent to promotion or tenure.

Mentors may also discuss work–life balance, including personal satisfaction and professional fulfillment.

Mentoring Teams for Tenure-Eligible Faculty

Tailoring the mentoring team or committee to the career path of the mentee, with an understanding of what the mentee seeks from the program, can be achieved through a junior faculty survey.

The mentoring champion, in consultation with the chair and possibly the mentee, assembles a team of mentors. To encourage unconstrained dialogue between the team and the mentee, the chair should not be a member of the team or attend mentoring meetings. Similarly, the team should not include the direct research supervisor, in most cases. The mentee may provide input, but the incentive to create the mentoring team should never fall solely on him or her.

Mentors, chosen for their expertise and experience, may have complementary strengths, providing scientific, professional, clinical, and other career advice that can help mentees to meet the requirements for professional advancement.

Mentoring Meetings for Tenure-Eligible Faculty

The full mentoring team meets at least once per year, but two or more meetings are recommended and may include less formal meetings or meetings with specific team members. As needed, mentors and mentee may suggest more frequent meetings.

Three weeks before the meeting, a mentee supplies mentors with the following:

• a current CV that includes a list of publications
• a brief research summary, outlining research accomplishments and short-term plans
• a summary of clinical activities
• funding information from internal and external sources, including planned and ongoing grant applications
• a list of speaking invitations and attendance at seminars and meetings with descriptions of roles at these events
• a list of personnel under the faculty member’s direct supervision
• an updated teaching portfolio
• a summary of relevant activities, such as participation on committees or professional collaborations
• a list of short- and long-term goals

Mentors may use the mentoring encounter form for tenure-eligible faculty as a guide for the discussion and to document meeting content.

For more information, refer to the Revision to the Policies and Procedures for Appointment, Promotion and Tenure at the School of Medicine, 2016.