Highlights from Team Mentoring

The Team Mentoring program is an invaluable resource that all new faculty should take advantage of. Tara Gray has been incredible. She has provided valuable information that has allowed me to be more productive while improving my teaching. She is an extraordinary academic and individual.

• Lisa Dalton, Assistant Professor, Social Work

My mentor, Lisa Bond-Maupin, was the best in the west, the southwest and beyond. She was engaging, reflective, and intuitive. Her questions to me, over our lunches, were sensitive, probing and they made me think–for hours and days after we met. We shared syllabi and vitaes, and she came to a class of mine and observed my students and my style. Her class visit provoked some great discussion between us. She was extremely valuable to me as I explored my college, other colleges, and the university as a whole, while coming to better understand the tenure process. She aided me in creating a more global form of thinking about NMSU, academia in general, and how there can be a powerful and effective blending of the university and community. It was a wonderful partnership that evolved into a friendship.

• Sue Forster–Cox, Assistant Professor, Health Science

The Team Mentoring program has been extremely helpful to me. It has provided a structure within which I can work toward improving my research, teaching and service to the University. It also really forced me to think through who would be a good mentor, and to interview potential mentors, instead of simply taking it for granted. Although I initially did not really think that I would benefit much from a classroom visitation, I got a lot of valuable information about my teaching from my mentor, who facilitated a mini-feedback session in my class with my students. Likewise, I visited hers and found out some useful things about how to approach my own classes. Also, we are sharing our research and providing feedback. H aving someone outside of your field to critique your writing is very instructive. My mentor, having recently gone through the tenure process, will be helping me to shape my dossier. I congratulate the staff of the Teaching Academy for implementing Team Mentoring, and hope that it continues to become a natural part of faculty development at NMSU.

• Judith Y. Weisinger, Associate Professor, Management Department