Mentoring Minority Faculty

As colleges work to diversify their faculties, many realize that recruiting is only half the equation. As with students, retention matters too. Yet survey after survey finds that many minority professors are less likely than their white counterparts to feel welcomed by institutions, to have mentors, and to feel that the institutional culture is inclusive. Some colleges are identifying strategies that reach out to their minority faculty members.

On Tuesday, October 16, at 1 p.m. Eastern, Stacy Blake-Beard, one of the leading experts on mentoring and diversity in organizations, will discuss how colleges can provide minority professors with mentors and an inclusive environment. She will discuss:

  • Definition and characteristics of mentoring
  • Important differences between informal mentoring relationships and formal mentoring initiatives
  • Common challenges facing mentoring programs in higher education
  • The latest research on first year student success and retention and what works (and doesn't).
  • Best practices for mentoring across dimensions of diversity
  • Specific strategies for mentoring faculty of color

The conference is ideal for:

  • Provosts, deans and academic affairs administrators
  • Department heads
  • Diversity officers
  • Human resources professionals

Stacy Blake-Beard’s 30-minute presentation will be followed by a session in which she'll answer questions posed by participants in the audio conference. The entire event will last one hour.

The "Mentoring Minority Faculty" audio conference costs $175 for a single telephone line; listen yourself or with a group around a conference table. Register early -- through Monday, October 1 -- and the cost is only $125. Upon registering, you'll be e-mailed information about how to dial in. A day before the conference, we'll send you a PowerPoint that you can use to follow along with Stacy Blake-Beard’s presentation. This is an audio-only conference; you will not need to be connected to the Internet to participate.

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About the presenter:

Stacy Blake-Beard is a senior faculty affiliate with the Center for Gender in Organizations at Simmons College. Her research focuses on mentoring relationships, and on how these relationships may be changing as a result of increasing workforce diversity. Before coming to Simmons in 2002, Dr. Blake-Beard was assistant professor of administration, planning, and social policy at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education, where she taught organizational behavior, cultural diversity in organizations, and mentoring relationships at work. She consults with a number of colleges and other organizations on issues of diversity, including Harvard University, the Universities of Michigan and Connecticut, Washington University in St. Louis, Chase Manhattan Bank, the Compact for Faculty Diversity, and PepsiCo. She currently sits on the advisory boards of Essence magazine's Best Places for African American Women to Work, MentorNet, and the Harvard Project on Tenure

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