Nominations for the Outstanding Faculty Mentor Awards will open on July 2

The nomination portal for the 2018-2019 Outstanding Faculty Mentor Awards opens on July 2, 2018. Each year, up to four faculty are recognized by the Graduate College for their excellence and contributions to graduate student and postdoctoral scholar mentoring and thesis or dissertation committee participation. Nominees must be nominated by current or recent (completing in 2017-2018) ASU graduate students, or postdoctoral scholars and final selection is determined by a committee of previous faculty awardees.

Nominating outstanding mentors is important because it publicly acknowledges “some of the most important work faculty do,” noted Melissa Beresford, PhD Candidate in Anthropology. Beresford credits her mentor with “life-changing” impacts and was one of eight students who wrote letters of support for the nomination of 2017-2018 recipient Amber Wutich, Outstanding Doctoral Committee Chair awardee for 2017-2018.

“Mentorship largely goes publicly unrecognized by the formal procedures and institutions through which faculty gain recognition,” she continued. “Amber has put an extraordinary amount of thought and time into the way she cultivates the next generation of scholars – and that work and leadership should be recognized and valued just as much as other higher profile tasks academics do.”

Danelle Cooper, a PhD Candidate in Global Health, nominated her dissertation chair as a way to convey how much positive impact her chair has had on her life. “I think it is very important to recognize and thank the people who help you on your journey,” she explained. “I also believe by nominating mentors [who are outstanding], it allows other people to follow their example on how to mentor.”

Nominations for 2018-2019 will be collected through October 2018. Awards will be presented to faculty to four categories: Outstanding doctoral committee member, Outstanding Master’s committee member, Outstanding graduate mentor, and Outstanding postdoctoral mentor. Awardees receive travel/research funds in the amount of $1,500, $1,000, $800 and $800, respectively.

Awardees will be recognized at a special reception on Wednesday, January 30, 2019. 

To submit a nomination, and find out more about the nomination and awards process, visit the Outstanding Faculty Mentor Awards webpage.

Recognize your favorite mentor on Social Media

To kick off the Outstanding Faculty Mentor Awards nomination season, the Graduate College is launching its #OFMAshoutout social media campaign. Graduate students and postdoctoral scholars are invited to share short video testimonials about their mentors and how they have impacted their academic lives. To submit a mentor shout out, simply upload your video to Instagram, Facebook or Twitter and tag it with #OFMAshoutout and @ASUGradCollege.