Philosophy for Mentorship

The primary aim of the Research Education Core (REC) program is to foster educational initiatives that supplement and bolster the preparation of a workforce capable of addressing the needs in biomedical, behavioral, and clinical research related to aging.

The REC is dedicated to sponsoring innovative educational programs, mainly concentrating on superb mentoring. These efforts are designed to cultivate the next generation of research leaders that study the multi-complexities of mobility loss. Specifically, it targets leaders capable of blending clinical understanding of health and disease, as well as independence and disability in the elderly, with insights from basic science advancements. This integration aims to enhance clinical solutions for preserving mobility and autonomy in older adults. 

The journey starts with the REC leaders—Drs Leeuwenburgh and Fillingim. They are matchmakers for finding the mentor-mentee pairs and serve in a “connector” role by helping mentees network across the disciplines of mobility and aging. In general, the scholar’s primary mentor will share a research focus with the Scholar, ensuring alignment in their research interests. Secondary mentors are strongly encouraged to serve as coaches and sponsors.  The mentee benefits from coaches who teach new scientific techniques, e.g. laboratory, analytical or equipment related. Secondary mentors may also serve as sponsors are those senior faculty serve as an advocate—a sounding board for topics that might be uncomfortable to discuss with primary mentors. These topics might relate to work-life balances, early transition to academic faculty positions, personality conflicts, mentor-mentee mismatches, personal issues that impact research productivity and administrative issues. 

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Training for Leadership in Science

Given the increasing importance of team science, effective team leadership represents a critical issue to ensure future success in biomedical research. Hence, we will provide our REC Scholars with leadership training, emphasizing the importance of a team leader’s ability to articulate the team’s vision, communicate clearly, empower team members, assign roles, delegate responsibilities, foster mutual trust, and manage conflict. In addition to being trained by their mentors, REC Scholars can complete an elective course, “So You Want to Become a Professor: Developing University Leaders.” This covers models of leadership; communication and organizational management; promoting and implementing change; emotional intelligence, burnout, and work-life balance; and promoting synergy, getting the best from your co-workers, and dealing with conflicts. Skills development will be enhanced via asynchronous platforms for case discussions and other forms of active learning. 

Our mentoring philosophy is aligned to guidelines from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM).  Our scholars originate from a variety of scientific backgrounds that necessitates a tailored and individualized mentoring approach that utilizes an interdisciplinary team mentoring model.  This has proved to be an optimal way to foster both personal and professional growth for our REC Scholars. For each scholar, a dedicated mentoring team will be established, led by a primary mentor who will oversee the creation of the Scholar’s Individual Development Plan (IDP). Secondary mentors are included as technique coaches, networking advocates and consultants. In general, we aim to meet the following competencies that are critical to research success. 

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