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1. Best Practices for Developing a Virtual Peer Mentoring Community

   Faber, C.J ; Smith-Orr, C.S ; Lee, W.C ; Bodnar, C.A ; Coso Strong, A ; McCave, E. ( June 2017 , ASEE annual conference & exposition proceedings)

   Engineering faculty are faced with a variety of challenges ranging from teaching responsibilities, navigating research, and negotiating service demands. Due to the nature of the emerging field of engineering education and the emphasis on education within the ASEE community, there is a need to develop methods to facilitate cross-institutional mentoring. While many institutions offer formal mentoring in some capacity, there are limitations and challenges associated with these support structures. Some common challenges are scheduling a time to meet, navigating institutional power dynamics, and identifying individuals with shared interests and goals. This work proposes best practices for the development of an innovative peer mentoring structure that accounts for shared commitment to the advancement of engineering education. This paper will provide insight for engineering education faculty who are currently transitioning into or are planning to pursue a career in academia in the future. We will describe a framework to create a virtual community for peer mentoring. The value of a virtual peer mentoring community is that it can provide support that may not be available within one’s institution and it minimizes the negative impacts that may be associated with institutional power dynamics. The best practices that we will describe are informed by six early career engineering education faculty that developed and participated in a virtual community over the last two years. We will describe best practices in relation to identifying a shared vision, developing possible tangible outcomes, writing operating procedures for the group, selecting an appropriate platform for communication, and facilitating reflection and changes to practice. 

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2. Best Practices for Developing a Virtual Peer Mentoring Community

   Faber, C. J. ; Smith-Orr, C. S. ; Lee, W. C. ; Bodnar, C. A. ; Strong, A. C. ; McCave, E. ( January 2017 , ASEE annual conference & exposition)

   Engineering faculty are faced with a variety of challenges ranging from teaching responsibilities, navigating research, and negotiating service demands. Due to the nature of the emerging field of engineering education and the emphasis on education within the ASEE community, there is a need to develop methods to facilitate cross-institutional mentoring. While many institutions offer formal mentoring in some capacity, there are limitations and challenges associated with these support structures. Some common challenges are scheduling a time to meet, navigating institutional power dynamics, and identifying individuals with shared interests and goals. This work proposes best practices for the development of an innovative peer mentoring structure that accounts for shared commitment to the advancement of engineering education. This paper will provide insight for engineering education faculty who are currently transitioning into or are planning to pursue a career in academia in the future. We will describe a framework to create a virtual community for peer mentoring. The value of a virtual peer mentoring community is that it can provide support that may not be available within one’s institution and it minimizes the negative impacts that may be associated with institutional power dynamics. The best practices that we will describe are informed by six early career engineering education faculty that developed and participated in a virtual community over the last two years. We will describe best practices in relation to identifying a shared vision, developing possible tangible outcomes, writing operating procedures for the group, selecting an appropriate platform for communication, and facilitating reflection and changes to practice. 

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3. Best Practices for Developing a Virtual Peer Mentoring Community

   Faber, C. ; Smith-Orr, C. ; Coso Strong, A. ; Lee, W. ; McCave, E. ( June 2017 , ASEE annual conference & exposition proceedings)

   This paper describes an approach for creating a virtual community for peer mentoring and provides insight, in the form of best practices, on how engineering faculty can elicit support through cross-institutional mentoring. The value of a virtual, peer-mentoring community is providing support that may be otherwise unavailable at one’s institution; it can also minimize negative impacts that may be associated with institutional power dynamics. The best practices described herein are informed by six early-career engineering education faculty that developed and participated in a virtual community of practice over the last two years. We will describe best practices for identifying a shared vision, developing possible tangible outcomes, writing operating procedures, selecting an appropriate platform for communication, and facilitating reflection and changes to practice. 

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4. Cross-Institutional Mentoring Communities Program.

   Minerick, A. ; Cervato, C. ; Goltz, S. ; Bilen-Green, C. ; Rouleau, M. ; Wahl, D. ; Sotirin, P. ( July 2022 , Zone 1 Conference of the American Society for Engineering Education)

   This paper describes the development and implementation of a Cross-Institutional Mentoring Communities (CIMC) program. CIMCs were designed to create networks of mentoring as a robust support and feedback mechanism for faculty facing compounded challenges related to their personal characteristics and/or specific identities, especially intersectional identities traditionally underrepresented in STEM (e.g., women of color, LGBTQIA+ faculty, faculty with disabilities), or simultaneous demands of an academic career and family caregiving responsibilities. Communities were formed with two to three junior and/or mid-career faculty, women, and men, from four midwestern institutions; each CIMC was facilitated by one or two more senior mentors. Virtual meetings were held at roughly bimonthly intervals. Mentors were regularly provided guidance on mentoring and topics to discuss with their mentoring groups. The CIMC networks facilitated career obstacle problem-solving, as well as enhanced a sense of community and belonging. The program worked to reduce the isolation, exclusion, and silencing of non-majority individuals within the typical academic career progression in addition to adapting to support during pandemic-altered faculty challenges. Key advantages of CIMCs included enabling inter-institutional exchanges and reflective learning among committee members about similarities and differences in climate and opportunities on different campuses. This paper will review the premise and literature on peer and peer-plus mentoring as well as describe the process of forming and supporting the CIMCs. Formative assessments for this ongoing program will also be discussed. This paper can serve as a guide for other institutions to form communities of support for diverse faculty. 

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5. Cross-Institutional Mentoring Communities Program

   Minerick, A. ( July 2022 , American Society for Engineering Education Annual Meeting, Proceedings Paper # 37576)

   This paper describes the development and implementation of a Cross-Institutional Mentoring Communities (CIMC) program. CIMCs were designed to create networks of mentoring as a robust support and feedback mechanism for faculty facing compounded challenges related to their personal characteristics and/or specific identities, especially intersectional identities traditionally underrepresented in STEM (e.g., women of color, LGBTQIA+ faculty, faculty with disabilities), or simultaneous demands of an academic career and family caregiving responsibilities. Communities were formed with two to three junior and/or mid-career faculty, women, and men, from four midwestern institutions; each CIMC was facilitated by one or two more senior mentors. Virtual meetings were held at roughly bimonthly intervals. Mentors were regularly provided guidance on mentoring and topics to discuss with their mentoring groups. The CIMC networks facilitated career obstacle problem-solving, as well as enhanced a sense of community and belonging. The program worked to reduce the isolation, exclusion, and silencing of non-majority individuals within the typical academic career progression in addition to adapting to support during pandemic-altered faculty challenges. Key advantages of CIMCs included enabling inter-institutional exchanges and reflective learning among committee members about similarities and differences in climate and opportunities on different campuses. This paper will review the premise and literature on peer and peer-plus mentoring as well as describe the process of forming and supporting the CIMCs. Formative assessments for this ongoing program will also be discussed. This paper can serve as a guide for other institutions to form communities of support for diverse faculty. 

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