STEP.up Guide to Creating a Mentorship Program for Research Staff

OVERVIEW

• Guide to implementing a formal mentoring program for research professionals to establish a culture of growth and belonging.
  
• Provides tools, resources, and insights to empower research staff through mentorship.
  
• Freely available under Creative Commons CC BY-NC.

INNOVATION 

Strong mentorship is known to be related to higher career satisfaction. Despite this, formal mentoring programs for research professionals are rare. To address this gap, MICHR has developed the STEP.up mentorship program that pairs early career, new-to-role, or new-to-organization research staff members with more senior research professionals for participation in a 9-month structured mentorship and career development experience. The goal of the program is to promote professional development, job satisfaction, and retention of the research staff workforce.

The STEP.up mentorship program provides the following five opportunities for mentees:

• Knowledge and skill enhancement
  
• Networking
  
• Career guidance
  
• Insights into research practices
  
• Professional development opportunities
  
• The STEP.up program implementation guide provides the tools, resources, and insights you need to implement this program successfully at your institution
  

OTHER

Copyright notice: ©2024 The Regents of the University of Michigan

Michigan Institute for Clinical & Health Research (MICHR) - www.michr.umich.edu

Available for free under the Creative Commons CC BY-NC 4.0 License.

Related information:

Research biographies:

Gloria Harrington, MBA, LMSW, CCRP

Chief Department Administrator, University of Michigan Department of Psychiatry

Gloria Harrington joined the University of Michigan Department of Psychiatry in 2007. She has over 15 years’ experience in the research domain, including clinical trials, project management, and operations. She currently serves as Chief Department Administrator, and in partnership with the Chair, is responsible for the financial performance, human resources, service agreements, research, academic, and clinical activities aimed at accomplishing the strategic initiatives of the department. She is a co-founder and co-lead of a research staff mentorship program aimed at improving the overall quality of research by creating a skilled, diverse, and knowledgeable workforce. She received her Master of Social work from Wayne State University, a Master of Business Administration from Cleary University, and has been a Certified Clinical Research Professional from SoCRA since 2012.

Reema Kadri, MLIS

Research Area Specialist, Senior

Michigan Medicine Department of Family Medicine | Michigan Institute for Clinical and Health Research-Behavioral Research Innovation and Support Program (BRISP)

Reema formally joined the University of Michigan from the Ann Arbor Department of Veterans Affairs in 2016 after having collaborated on various UM-VA projects since 2008. Her career and education background encourages multiple perspectives and approaches to handling the tasks of health services research. She’s a big believer in helping people find ways to improve their skills to allow them to work in ways that best use their talents and passion.

Angela Lyden, MS

Research Area Specialist, Lead

Michigan Medicine Clinical Trials Support Office (CTSO) | Michigan Institute for Clinical and Health Research-Behavioral Research Innovation and Support Program (BRISP)

Angela joined the University of Michigan research enterprise in 2002 after stints at Georgetown University and the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. She has over 25 years’ experience in research with expertise in behavioral intervention development and implementation, data management and analysis, and study team infrastructure development. She currently serves as the Science and Education Coordinator the CTSO and a lead staff member for BRISP. She serves on multiple institution committees whose work supports staff development and scientific rigor. Along with Gloria Harrington, she founded and co-leads the STEP.up mentorship program at the University of Michigan. Angela received her Master of Clinical Exercise Physiology from The George Washington University and a Master of Research Design and Statistical Analysis from the University of Michigan. Additionally, she was trained by the National Research Mentoring Network in Facilitating Mentor Training and completed workshops in mentoring a diverse workforce.

Questions:

For questions on the STEP.up guide, you may contact Angie Lyden, alyden@med.umich.edu.