Spring 2021 Mentoring Mentors series begins March 30 – register by March 28
Mentoring Mentors is offered as a three-day workshop series for faculty and postdocs that will include discussions of aligning expectations, fostering independence, maintaining effective communication, and diversity and inclusion. These live, virtual workshops will be hosted by National Research Mentors Network (NRMN)-trained UNR faculty.
Schedule
- Workshop Day 1 – Tuesday, March 30, 2021, from 10 to 11:30 a.m.
- Workshop Day 2 – Wednesday, March 31, 2021, from 10 to 11:30 a.m.
- Workshop Day 3 – Thursday, April 1, 2021, from 10 to 11:30 a.m.
As the Director of Postdoctoral Affairs, Graduate Recruitment, and Diversity Initiatives for the Graduate School at the University of Nevada, Reno, Matthew is responsible for designing and implementing Graduate School initiatives such as professional development for postdoctoral scholars and graduate students, graduate student recruitment and diversity. He also supports graduate student recruitment efforts and provides strategic direction to identify, recruit and support diverse graduate students. Matthew works alongside with the Graduate Student Association to further provide resources and support for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars.
Catherine Chaput attended CIMER training in 2019 and is the Acting Director of Graduate Studies in English an Associate Professor of rhetoric with research interest in affect studies, political economy, and argumentation. She has mentored undergraduates and graduate students within her department. With new growth and hires within the Department of English, her perspective on mentoring within the liberal arts is especially timely and valuable.
Scotty Strachan attended CIMER training in 2019 and is a trained research scientist in a new program development role (as "Director of Cyberinfrastructure") at the University of Nevada, Reno. Besides maintaining his own research agenda in Great Basin ecohydrology and mountain climate science, he is building from the ground-up a program of institutional research technology support (or, "cyberinfrastructure"). This program will bring administrative faculty, staff, research faculty, and students together across colleges and disciplines to change how technology is used to accelerate research at our school. Breaking these barriers can start with effective mentoring, facilitation, and workforce development, so aligning efforts with the University's Graduate School's new mentoring program is only natural. Scotty was often placed into mentoring roles for undergrad and graduate students as part of his previous research scientist and lab manager career, and has seen the difference between proactive mentoring and its absence. Scotty would like to bring mentoring facilitation back into both the IT department admin faculty ranks as well as the science and engineering college faculty populations, with whom he often work on proposals and research projects.
Alireza Tavakkoli attended CIMER training in 2019 and is an associate professor of computer science with research interest in visual computing, artificial intelligence, robotics, and virtual reality.
Veronica Zepeda attended CIMER training in 2019 and was a lecturer in the University's Biochemistry Department from 2014-2016. Since 2016 she has been the Director of Graduate Student Services and Senior Advisor to the Graduate Student Association. She was born and raised in Houston, Texas where she gained her love of science in high school while attending several summer research programs. These experiences led her to attend MIT and obtain a B.S. in Biology. While pursuing undergraduate research at MIT, she became involved in science education and outreach programs. She continued this work while a graduate student at UC Berkeley and from 2006-2010 participated in the development of a summer research experience for undergraduates (REU) at UC Berkeley. Veronica received her Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology and went on to work as a Science Education and Outreach Coordinator at UC San Francisco. During her time at UCSF she focused on outreach to high school and community college students in the Bay Area and was the scientific advisor and mentor of the UCSF iGEM team - a summer research program for high school students. In her current role at the University, Veronica serves on several committees that support the growing diversity of the campus and co-organizes a professional development workshop series for graduate students. Through this work she has seen the need for expanded mentor training for graduate students.