Jan 25, 2023 — After nearly a year of development, the UF College of Medicine recently launched the Faculty Mentorship Resource Center, a centralized online hub where faculty can access key college resources and connect with mentors to receive personalized coaching to aid their professional development.

The center, created as part of the people pillar of the college’s strategic plan, aims to cultivate a community for faculty through an online dashboard, hosted by Chronus, that promotes a workplace culture of growth and collaboration. The peer-to-peer platform, the first of what will be three Chronus portals within the center, allows prospective mentors and mentees to build an online profile and find matches based on shared interests.

“People are at the heart of the organization and our goal is to create an inclusive environment where our faculty can experience professional growth and development,” said Jennifer Bizon, Ph.D., a professor and chair of the department of neuroscience. “The Faculty Mentorship Resource Center is structured to break down departmental barriers and match individuals across the college and help them find the people who can help them be successful.”

When building their profile in the peer-to-peer portal, both mentors and mentees can fill out a brief “about me” section, list their professional affiliations and detail their work and educational histories. Mentors can also include information regarding their topic interests, mentoring areas of expertise and leadership competencies, while mentees can highlight the skills and competencies they seek to develop. There are currently 40 mentors signed up to participate in the portal, and that number is expected to grow as the program scales up.

“We are thrilled to see the peer-to-peer track go live and serve as a one-stop-shop for finding collaborators, coaches and career resources across the college,” said Mark Segal, M.D., Ph.D., the senior associate dean for faculty affairs and professional development. “This is an important step in creating a culture of mentorship and support within the college.”

In February, the center will launch the circles portal, which will operate like an online chatroom, allowing any member to set up a circle group to talk with other faculty to answer questions or collaborate on research ideas. With the presence of numerous peers and senior faculty on the same online hub, there will be many levels to seek advice and find answers to myriad questions. In March, the onboarding portal will also go live, providing a step-by-step guide to enhance the orientation experience for new faculty.

As the Faculty Mentorship Resource Center expands in upcoming months, the Chronus platform will enable the college to collect anonymized metrics on how many faculty are reaching out and using the platform. These data points will in turn serve as a barometer for analyzing the effectiveness of the program and generating analytics-driven strategies for building a more comprehensive culture of collaboration and professional growth.

“We want to prioritize the act of building lasting connections, which can extend across the entirety of a faculty member’s career,” Bizon said. “This new platform will be another valuable resource for our faculty and will help empower them to take charge of their careers.”

Visit ufmedmentor.chronus.com to create a Chronus account and sign up for the Faculty Mentorship Resource Center.