- I don't use the term mentoring, I talk about mentorship. - Okay. - Because parties in a mentoring relationship or mentoring relationships have agency and a really important role to play towards really making sure the quality of that relationship is strong, you know, that recognizes there are power differentials. - That's true. - Obviously, the mentors really have an important, very important role to play. But trainees also have some important skills and practices that they can implement to make those mentoring relationships that they are in proceed effectively. - [Announcer] This is the "ORISE Featurecast". Join host, Michael Holtz, for conversations with ORISE experts on STEM workforce development, scientific and technical reviews, and the evaluation of radiation exposure and environmental contamination. You'll also hear from ORISE research program participants and their mentors as they talk about their experiences and how they are helping shape the future of science. Welcome to the "ORISE Featurecast". - Welcome to another episode of the "ORISE Featurecast". As always, I'm your host, Michael Holtz in the communications and marketing department at ORISE. And I'm really excited to be talking about mentorship today with Melissa McDaniels. And Melissa, welcome. - Thank you so much. It's wonderful to be here. - I'm so glad to have you. Tell me a little bit about who you are and why we're talking about mentorship today. - Absolutely. Well, first of all, again thank you for having me, and I'm looking forward to talking with a larger community next week. My name is Melissa McDaniels, and I hold the role of Scientist and Associate Executive Director of a center at University of Wisconsin Madison called the Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences and Research. And what our center focuses on is developing trainings and workshops, testing those approaches to training, and doing research on these trainings. And these workshops really focus on building capacity of research mentors to deliver high quality and culturally inclusive mentorship to trainees of all different career stages. - Wow, That sounds so important, especially these days. And I know from ORISE's perspective because we do so many mentored research experiences, we offer them to students at many, many levels. So to be doing research and work into how to improve those experiences seems like a very critical thing to make sure that everyone gets out of those experiences what they need to succeed. - It really is. And you know, the research, and I'll be talking about this in more detail during my talk next week, but mentored strong mentored research experiences have been really linked to some really important outcomes, including research productivity, and sort of an enhanced science identity meaning I have a role with my skills and my interests to play in this broader scientific community in addition to some other important outcomes. The research has also told us that unfortunately but maybe not surprising, individuals from traditionally underrepresented social identities often have less access to high quality mentorship. And so that is one of the driving forces that we have to really even the play playing field a little bit and make sure all individuals of all different backgrounds have access to high quality and culturally responsive mentorship. - That makes perfect sense. And you know, like just, I know from our work that the government agencies we work with are looking to expand to those traditionally underserved you know, culturally underrepresented communities. So to get more of those folks into the pipeline is a critical meeting. - Absolutely, and one of the things I was struck by in learning a little bit more about ORISE work is just the the numbers of trainees that you have in the program. And I sort of forgot the numbers but in the thousands, correct? - It's, yeah, it's in the 10,000-ish range, depending on, yeah. - Yeah. So yeah, so that's why I was really excited to accept the opportunity to speak with your constituencies, to really broaden the message about the importance of mentorship and to really to say that there is a strong research foundation for why mentorship is important. I just mentioned a few things. Back in 2019, the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine put together a consensus study that really talked about what does the scientific community know about what works in mentorship, what do we not know, and for whom does it work. So those are some of the findings that I'll be sharing next week. - Awesome. And it's important too, that successful mentorship is both the role of the mentor, but also the mentee in terms of coming prepared for a quality experience and building that rapport, and all of those things. - Yeah, you made a really, really good point. And this is particularly why I don't use the term mentoring. I talk about mentorship. - Okay. - Because parties in a mentoring relationship or mentoring relationships have agency and a really important role to play towards really making sure the quality of that relationship is strong, you know, that recognizes there are power differentials. - That's true. - Obviously the mentors really have an important, very important role to play. But trainees also have some important skills and practices that they can implement to make those mentoring relationships that they are in proceed effectively. - So Melissa, as we're talking about the importance of mentorship and what both mentors and trainees bring to the situation, what are some of those dimensions that are really important to the success of that relationship? - One of the foremost factors that has been shown to play such an important role is the process of continually aligning expectations among the parties involved. So again, whether that is a mentoring dyad, a mentoring triad, the goal would be to make sure at the beginning of the relationship and in a consistent basis across the relationship what are some things that the mentor and mentee can do to align expectations, both for sort of what the role of the mentee is gonna be but also how they're gonna communicate. So I always like to say it's both the what, meaning the content of the relationship, what is that particular mentor gonna bring to the table that they believe that can benefit the mentee, but also the how of the relationship. So how are the mentor and mentee going to interact with each other? Are they even gonna be in the same physical space? What are the implications of that? And how often are they gonna communicate? What are they gonna do when there is conflict? 'Cause conflict happens in any healthy relationship, how are they going to address it? So the idea of aligning expectations both in the beginning and throughout the relationship is incredibly important. And there are some tools that exist that I will be sharing next week that mentors and mentees can take advantage of to help that process. - Awesome. Well, since you've brought up next week, let's talk a little bit about your seminar and the session and kinda what you're, a little bit about what you're gonna cover. - Yeah, no, absolutely. So I think, you know, I'm gonna start off by making the concise argument about why research mentorship is important and why focusing intentionally on one's performance as a mentor and a trainee are so important. And after that, really, again, we'll be bringing together some of the core findings that are cited in the National Academy's report that I mentioned. And these findings have both implications for individuals, so individuals who are engaging in the mentoring relationship also has implications for department heads and institutions more broadly, things they can do to not only enhance mentoring relationships but really these mentoring relationships thrive when you have a culture of mentorship in an organization. - Yeah, yeah. - So, and I'll also be talking about the importance in a bunch of national models for mentorship education and a little bit more about the evidence for their effectiveness. And this is one of the things that we have been working very hard with the Inclusive Graduate Education Network. And that's again, another program that I've been a part of, sponsored by NSF, that's really trying to enhance mentoring in the physical sciences. And so we actually adapted a mentorship training approach for researchers in agencies like the ones that are a part of your network. So I look forward to sharing information about those resources that we'll be able to disseminate more broadly. - That sounds like an amazing session. You're covering a lot of ground. But it all sounds amazing. And if you are someone who is looking for a mentorship relationship, want to improve your mentorship relationship, this sounds like a session that you need to be part of. And we'll put some information about how to plug into that, in the program notes for this episode. But the session is called "The Science of Mentorship in STEM Evidence-Based Practices for Mentors and Trainees". And the webinar is gonna be offered on January 31st from 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM Eastern Time. And you are gonna hear from the amazing Melissa McDaniels about all things mentorship. And it just sounds like an amazing, amazing, and very important session, and especially for us as an organization that invests so much in research participation experiences. It's the perfect, the perfect conversation. - Well, and as I mentioned, it's an honor to be able to have an audience that is so large, like your constituencies. So I look forward to getting people excited about mentorship and to really reengage in a commitment to be intentional about their mentorship practices. So thank you so much for having me. - Absolutely, thank you for joining me. Melissa, one more question for you. - Yeah. - Totally unrelated. - Yeah? - What brings you joy? - What brings me joy? What brings me joy is to enable people to make connections with each other across boundaries to come up with creative solutions that they would not be able to come up with without that engagement. So I am someone who creates connections or tries to create connections for people and ideas, and communities. - Awesome, I love that answer. Thank you, again, thank you so much for joining me for this conversation. And I hope everyone will tune in to your webinar on the 31st - As I do, and it's gonna be great to be with everybody. Thank you so much. - Thank you, have a great day. - You too. - [Announcer] Thank you for listening to the "ORISE Featurecast". To learn more about the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, visit ORISE.ORAU.gov or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at ORISE Connect. If you like the "ORISE Featurecast", give us a review wherever you listen to podcasts. The Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education is managed by ORAU for the US Department of Energy.