Ten faculty were honored with the 2023 UAB Graduate Dean's Excellence in Mentorship Award April 11 at 4 p.m. at the UAB National Alumni Society House. The annual award recognizes full-time regular UAB faculty members who have demonstrated exceptional accomplishments as mentors of graduate students and/or postdoctoral fellows.
“Reading through all the wonderful support letters submitted on behalf of the mentors this year, the common theme I observed was that these mentors recognized their mentees as multidimensional students / scholars who are balancing their academic, work and family lives,” said Dr. Shadi Martin, Graduate School Dean and Vice Provost for Graduate and International Education. “These mentors also inspired their students and ignited a fire in them to achieve more than they thought possible. Our faculty mentor award recipients have gone above and beyond, and truly demonstrated what it means to be an outstanding mentor.”
Award winners received a handcrafted medallion, as well as a certificate and a copy of the letters their mentees and colleagues wrote to nominate them for the honor.
Congratulations to the 2023 excellent mentors:
Elizabeth Baker
College of Arts and Sciences, Sociology
What does mentoring mean to me?
"Research can be very exciting, but it can also be very daunting and discouraging to new researchers. Being a good mentor means reminding individuals, sometimes on a near constant basis, everything they have accomplished and everything that they still will accomplish."
Mary Ann Bodine Al-Sharif
School of Education and Human Sciences, Higher Education Administration
What does mentoring mean to me?
"Mentoring means taking on a responsibility to others - serving and teaching in a way that seeks to move individuals forward in their educational endeavors, professional trajectories, and personal lives. A mentor supports you, cheers you on, provides feedback and advice. They are there to help you define your goals and to reach them. They help to equip you with the tools that you need to be successful for a lifetime. Mentoring means creating a key relationship that has the potential to impact individuals' choices and career trajectories in a significant way. Most importantly, mentoring is about being humble, being patient, being supportive and being real with others. Mentoring, when done right, creates professional relationships for a lifetime."
Aaron Catledge
College of Arts and Sciences, Physics
What does mentoring mean to me?
"Guidance as a mentor can take on many forms, but I believe it generally involves playing a supporting role to allow freedom for students to develop and test their own ideas, while offering encouragement and suggestions when needed. The student/mentor relationship is one of mutual respect. It includes acknowledgement that while one may not have all the answers, the constant drive to plan, execute, and critically analyze ideas will eventually lead to intellectual breakthroughs. For me, our student successes and their subsequent career/professional accomplishments provide great satisfaction and is a testament to the educational leadership at UAB."
Olivio Clay
College of Arts and Sciences, Psychology
What does mentoring mean to me?
"Mentoring is a life-long endeavor of continued learning and dissemination of knowledge. Individuals should have an overall, systematic approach to mentorship, but be equitable and acknowledge some mentees will need more guidance in specific areas in order to be successful."
Todd Green
Heersink School of Medicine and Graduate Biomedical Sciences, Microbiology theme
What does mentoring mean to me?
"Mentors in the academic environment are most likely identified because they have expertise on a topic or technique that has common interest to a student. Thus, mentors are initially educators that exist as a guide through a scientist arena. Good mentors should always strive to be more. They should build trust, have empathy, and generate a supportive environment for students to thrive. As a student, my mentor taught me a Chinese idiom that translates roughly to 'the color blue is made out of indigo but is more vivid than indigo.' Here, the ultimate meaning is that the student surpasses the mentor. Mentors should put students on a path to success. A great benchmark for a mentor’s success is to see students excel in their discipline, and more so in life."
Ashley Harms
Heersink School of Medicine and Graduate Biomedical Sciences, Neurology theme
What does mentoring mean to me?
"Mentoring is an incredibly vital part of my professional and personal life. As a mentor, I look forward to building strong, supportive relationships with my mentees. It brings me great joy to not only see them achieve their academic and professional goals with my guidance, but mentoring also changes me in a way that is uniquely special. Mentorship to me goes both ways by creating an environment that allows me to listen, learn, and push myself to be better."
David Schneider
Heersink School of Medicine and Graduate Biomedical Sciences, Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics theme
What does mentoring mean to me?
"Mentorship is the opportunity to share experiences and insights with colleagues who can benefit professionally and/or personally from the relationship. Everyone needs mentors (many mentors) and these critical relationships benefit the mentee, the mentor, and the community as a whole."
David Schwebel
College of Arts and Sciences, Psychology
What does mentoring mean to me?
"Mentoring means investing the time, energy and effort to offer trainees the support they need to achieve their potential, fulfill their dreams, and impact the world in a positive way."
Jessica Scoffield
Heersink School of Medicine and Graduate Biomedical Sciences, Microbiology
What does mentoring mean to me?
"Mentoring is providing the necessary guidance, support, and encouragement that allows trainees to develop into well-rounded and thoughtful scientists with integrity, while understanding that every mentee is different and has diverse long-term goals, which requires me to be flexible as a mentor. Mentoring is a mutually beneficial relationship that requires trust, commitment, and understanding. I enjoy creating a laboratory environment that fosters freedom of thought and scientific exploration, and supports a productive love of science without micromanagement, while still maintaining a positive mental health environment and work-life blend for all members. My goal is to provide a training experience that will prepare the mentee for whatever career path they intend to pursue. The most gratifying part of mentoring is seeing my trainees flourish, accomplish their goals, and reap the rewards of their hard work."
Adam Wende
Heersink School of Medicine and Graduate Biomedical Sciences, Pathology theme
What does mentoring mean to me?
"Mentorship is one of the most important themes in my career, both the mentors I’ve had and the mentor I want to be. I have been fortunate enough to have had outstanding scientific mentors since 8th grade. This continued in HS, College, Graduate School, and my Postdoc. From all these great examples I have tried to mold myself into someone who provides his trainees with the guidance they need while providing the freedom to discover themselves. To date, this approach has worked very well and - only considering my direct graduate or postdoctoral trainees - all who have applied for external funding have received it. And to the best of my knowledge all who have matriculated have moved into positions consistent with the goals they presented to me. I have been very fortunate to have had all these great trainees and I look forward to continuing to mentor my current direct crew as well as all the various thesis and steering committee trainees I work with. My first nearly 10 years as an independent investigator have been fruitful in this regard and I hope to continue as a mentor who is understanding, supportive, and provides an environment for his trainees to excel!"