Mentoring has been shown to positively affect and influence the persistence of historically minoritized students in STEM, specifically persons who identify as Black, Hispanic/Latinx, or American Indian/Alaska Native. Yet for mentors in higher education, minimal examples exist that detail effective mentoring approaches, especially approaches that help minoritized mentees to persist and succeed. In understanding effective mentoring approaches, we can develop and implement empirical practices and strategies to better support students. In this seminar, Dr. Mondisa presents preliminary findings about the mentoring approaches of highly effective mentors from her NSF CAREER work. 

Speaker Bio

Joi Mondisa, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Industrial & Operations Engineering Department and an Engineering Education Faculty Member at the University of Michigan. She earned her Ph.D. in Engineering Education and an M.S. degree in Industrial Engineering from Purdue University; an M.B.A. degree from Governors State University; and a B.S. degree in General Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Prior to her graduate studies, she worked as a professional in the areas of manufacturing, operations, technical sales, and publishing for ten years. She was also an adjunct faculty in the Engineering Technology Program at Triton College in River Grove, IL for seven years. In her research, she examines mentoring underrepresented populations in STEM; mentoring experiences and intervention programs in higher education; and learning experiences in engineering education. Dr. Mondisa is the recipient of the prestigious National Science Foundation’s Early CAREER award.