Welcome to another year of the CIMCs (improved based on your feedback)!
Returning participants and mentors: Please scroll down to question 1.
CIMCs are mentoring committees that will partner mentees with mentors who have experienced similar challenges (usually 1-2 mentees, 3-4 mentors). Two participants will hail from different institutions than you in this ADVANCE Partnership. These cross-institution committees will be intentionally formed - to the best of our abilities - to match participant's lived experiences pertaining to discipline and/or intersectional identities.
BACKGROUND for New Participants:
Cross-Institutional Mentoring Communities (CIMCs) are part of an NSF-funded ADVANCE Partnership Initiative between Iowa State University, Michigan Technological University, North Dakota State University, and Western Michigan University. CIMCs are designed to create networks of mentoring as a robust support mechanism for faculty with personal characteristics and/or specific identities, especially intersectional identities traditionally underrepresented in STEM (e.g., women of color, LGBTQIA+ women, differently-able women) or simultaneous demands of an academic career and family caregiving responsibilities. The communities emphasize career obstacle problem-solving during discussions every 2-3 weeks.
The goal is for individuals to benefit from an enhanced sense of community and belonging. The program is intended to reduce isolation and exclusion and to develop additional networks outside of the home institution. These communities are asked to bring intersectional identities that are important to participants into the discussions such that the communities can provide customized and relevant support. This is intended to instill a culture of listening, awareness, and responsiveness to the concerns of women and historically underrepresented (HUG) faculty that results in retention and systemic institutional change. Lastly, CIMCs also help facilitate inter-institutional exchanges and reflective learning among committee members about similarities and differences in climate and opportunities on different campuses, thus seeding fresh ideas.
Cross-Institutional Mentoring Communities (CIMC) are based on Michigan Tech's Early Career Management (ECM,
https://www.mtu.edu/provost/programs/ecm/) and Advanced Career Management (ACM,
https://www.mtu.edu/advance/initiatives/acm/) ADVANCE initiatives.
GOALS of the CIMCs:1. CIMCs will be cross-institutional and organized around similar intersectional identities as identified by participants.
2. CIMC communities will include mentors who can personally relate to the concerns of individuals by matching self-identified identity attributes among individuals at the partner universities.
3. CIMC mentees are invited from all ranks and tenure status.
4. Improve the work/life experiences of faculty, increase retention, and support career success and progression for individuals with historically excluded identities.
5. CIMCs will offer opportunities for faculty mentees to explore questions and share obstacles to career progress that may be difficult to recognize or overcome.
6. CIMCs will provide mentees with a network that will amplify their career achievements, give encouragement, and build professional confidence.
7. CIMCs will provide opportunities for faculty mentors to use their knowledge and lived experiences to facilitate the professional and personal growth of more junior faculty who share similar identities.
7. CIMCs will provide a venue to develop and share successful support strategies that can be institutionalized at the partner institutions and disseminated more broadly.
This form asks potential mentees and mentors to indicate demographic and other characteristics/identities (e.g., gender, race/ethnicity, parent/caregiver, country/region of origin, LGBTQIA+, disability, and others) that they desired to focus on. This will enable our team - comprised of individuals from each partner institution - to do our best to assemble CIMCs for mentees with mentors who have experienced similar challenges.
We are currently seeking interested faculty to participate from our partner institutions for Spring 2023 CIMC Cohorts. Please share your information below!
If you have questions, please contact Adrienne Minerick at Michigan Tech (
minerick@mtu.edu),
Cinzia Cervato at Iowa State (cinzia@iastate.edu), Carrie Ann Johnson at Iowa State (carrieaj@iastate.edu), Canan Bilen Green at North Dakota State (canan.bilen.green@ndsu.edu) or Carla Koretsky at Western Michigan University (carla.koretsky@wmich.edu).