The Foundation is pleased to announce two William T. Grant Scholars and two research grantees have been awarded grants to support their development as mentors to junior researchers of color:
Riana Anderson, a William T. Grant Scholar, will mentor Minh Duc Pham, a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University.
Gail Ferguson, a research grantee, will mentor Trinity Barnes, a doctoral student at the University of Minnesota.
Sarah Lenhoff, a research grantee, will mentor Adrianna Spindle-Jackson, a postdoctoral fellow at Wayne State University.
Goleen Samari, a William T. Grant Scholar, will mentor Behnan Albahsahi, a doctoral student at the University of Southern California.
As part of the Foundation’s commitment to career development, the mentoring grants program is designed to help William T. Grant Scholars and research grantees both hone their skills and abilities as mentors and help researchers of color reach higher levels on the career ladder.
The program provides $60,000 for mentoring doctoral students and $110,000 for mentoring postdoctoral fellows. All mentors and mentees convene during annual meetings designed to support mentoring relationships, mentors’ learning, and junior researchers’ development as researchers.
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In addition to pursuing formal mentorship training and implementing a networked model of mentorship, Anderson will use this award to develop skills to prioritize slower paced productivity that supports healthy functioning within project management planning.
“Entering this grant, I aspire to establish a well-formed line of research while finding a balance point between falling in love again and again with my work and taking care of myself. I know Dr. Anderson and I will unlock many unexpected joys and challenges along the way which I am thrilled to welcome into my life to have the most amazing postdoc experience,” Pham said.
With Anderson’s guidance, Pham will learn the literature on racial socialization and intervention science while integrating his focus on activism, assist with a randomized controlled trial that examines the relationship between racial socialization and Black youth’s activism, and use latent growth modeling to analyze youth outcomes following the intervention.
“Dr. Pham has tremendous energy and I look forward to feeling that fire again—the desire to be impactful, productive, and justice-oriented,” Anderson said. “His perspectives on common work are so unique and I can’t wait to be in community with him to better understand how his approaches will subsequently shape mine.”
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Ferguson will use this award to strengthen her ability to lead multiracial teams in ethnic-racial socialization research, mentor immigrant and native-born Black students, and support female graduate students of color in developing coping mechanisms that destigmatize help-seeking.
“A major goal of mine supported by this mentoring grant is to illuminate the role of race x gender x immigrant status intersectionalities in mentorship relationships between women of color in order to best tailor mentoring for mentees’ professional development and success,” Ferguson said. “This is a topic around which there are no formal textbooks, symposia, or workshop trainings, yet an important one. Therefore, I will be receiving mentorship of my own from senior colleagues who are mostly faculty women of color who have invaluable experience and scholarly expertise to bring to bear.”
In addition to supporting Ferguson’s Foundation-funded study, Barnes will pursue an independent research project that explores the relationship between media representation and racial socialization among Black youth.
With this award, Barnes’ goals include “building a mentorship network that reflects my intersecting interests, enhancing my ability to communicate my research across disciplines, and expanding my methodological toolbox to design studies that address complex research questions,” she said. “Beyond receiving quality mentorship from my primary advisor, I hope to also gain the skills and confidence to mentor junior graduate and undergraduate students, so that by the end of this grant, I am not only well-supported but also equipped to support others.”
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Lenhoff will use this award to expand her toolkit of structures to support scholarly writing, develop process models for training her research team, and strengthen her cultural competence to discuss how identity shapes professional experiences.
“At the end of the grant period, I hope I am a much stronger mentor, especially of junior scholars of color and of scholars working across disciplines. So much of my job now is mentoring junior scholars, and I hope to feel as confident in mentorship as I do in other aspects of my job, like research, writing, and formal instruction,” Lenhoff said.
“I’m looking forward to co-creating a mentoring relationship that fosters collaboration, curiosity, and skill building,” said Spindle-Jackson, whose goals for the award include deepening her qualitative research skills, expanding her professional network, and strengthening her publication record in anticipation of the tenure-track faculty job search. “Through this relationship, I’m eager to learn how my mentor has navigated academic spaces throughout her career and receive support in establishing my own process of skill building and decision making to navigate academia.”
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With this grant, Albahsahi hopes to become an established authority on adolescent and young adult immigrant health, gain expertise in quantitative and qualitative methods, and build her publication record.
“I am currently working on building a foundational research skillset in core practices like data analysis and writing for immigrant youth research. As I advance in these areas, I look forward to coming to the table as a collaborator, piloting ideas and investigations in this field of work. In addition to learning these core skills from Dr. Samari, I’m hoping to refine my existing scholarship and publications with Dr. Samari’s mentorship and to extend her existing contributions to the health research of immigrant and refugee youth.”
“Ultimately, I want to emerge from this grant period not only as a stronger mentor to Behnan but also as someone who can influence the mentoring culture at my institution and beyond to better support research and training that reduces inequalities for young people,” Samari said. With this award, Samari will develop practices to support skills-based mentorship in analysis and writing, cultivate practices to maintain boundaries that promote mentorship and wellbeing, and develop administrative support to make institutional changes regarding mentorship.
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“The program offers an opportunity not only for mentees to receive support as they navigate their careers, but also for grantees to further develop their skills as mentors. We look forward to watching these dyads grow together over the grant period,” said Senior Program Officer Melissa Wooten, who manages the program.
