Written by Sandra Quinn, PhD
On September 7, 2018, the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine
convened their Fellowships Roundtable for a full-day workshop on critical issues that
affect a diversity of fellowship programs serving participants from undergraduate
students through post-doctoral scholars. Attendees represented multiple fellowships
programs—Ford Foundation, the American Association for the Advancement of Science,
National Science Foundation, NIH, the American Association of University Women, and
multiple others.
In a session, Effective Mentoring Strategies: Reflections from Program Administrators
and Mentees, Sandra Crouse Quinn, a co-investigator in the Mentoring Training Core and
one of the developers of the Culturally Aware Mentoring (CAM) training, led off a panel
with her talk on the National Research Mentoring Network as a whole, with a significant
focus on CAM. This kicked off the panel that included John Mateja, Director, Goldwater
Scholarship Foundation; Harolyn Belcher, MD, Director, Center for Diversity in Public
Health Leadership Training, Kennedy Krieger Institute; Marie Plaisime, Robert Wood
Johnson Fellow, Howard University; and Marguerite Matthews, AAAS Fellow, National
Institutes of Health. One of the unique features of the panel was that Ms. Plaisime and
Ms. Matthews are both currently mentees, and as under represented, woman scholars, had
thoughtful and significant insights into the mentoring process. Dr. Melissa Green Parker,
Health Science Administrator, from the NHLBI, National Institutes of Health, organized
the panel. There was a lively discussion and significant interest in both CAM and the
resources of the NRMN as a whole.
