2016 Mentoring Grants to Support Junior Researchers of Color

Three William T. Grant Scholars have been awarded grants to support their development as mentors to junior colleagues. The Scholars will mentor three promising post-doctoral fellows in enhancing their methodological skills, publication records, and career networks.

The Scholars mentoring grant is designed to help Scholars hone their skills and abilities as mentors and help researchers of color reach higher levels on the career ladder. The award encourages Scholars to be strong mentors attuned to the career development challenges disproportionately faced by their junior colleagues of color.

In their applications, Scholars assess their current strengths and weaknesses as mentors and propose goals for improving their mentoring skills. They and their mentees also assess the mentees’ strengths and weaknesses and design a mentoring plan that will strengthen the mentees’ potential for a successful research career.

This year’s Scholars mentoring grantees are:

Michael MacKenzie is a second-year William T. Grant Scholar. As an assistant professor, his mentoring was focused primarily on undergraduate and graduate students of color, as well as first-generation students. In his new role as an associate professor, he will be mentoring postdoctoral fellows and junior faculty.

The award will support his mentee, Adrian Gale, an African-American doctoral candidate for a dual PhD in Social Work and Developmental Psychology at the University of Michigan. Gale expects to graduate in Spring 2016, and this award will support him as a postdoctoral fellow.

Laura Tach is a first-year William T. Grant Scholar who has accumulated experience mentoring seven doctoral students in a formal mentoring capacity, serving on committees, supervising research assistantships and collaborating with students on research projects.

The award will support Tach’s mentee, Mariana Fernandes da Cunha Loureiro Amorim, a Latin American first-year doctoral student in the Policy Analysis and Management Department at Cornell University.