Dreamer Graves will have worked at Emory for nine years come
September. In those nine years, she’s been advancing consistently
within her department, starting as a warehouse data entry clerk
and rising to her current job as a warehouse supervisor.
She said she wants to keep advancing—eventually to her department’s
upper management level. “That’s somewhere I would like
to be,” Graves said. “I want to make a difference.”
As a participant of the newly created Mentor Emory program, Graves
said she is taking steps to map out her career path.
Mentor Emory, which debuted last month specifically for staff women
at Emory, is a joint project of Human Resources and the President’s
Commission on the Status of Women (PCSW) that pairs younger female
employees seeking career advice, guidance and development with more
experienced female staff members. Graves and her mentor, Debbie
Moyers, director of Resource Planning, are one of six pairs test-driving
Mentor Emory.
“The women at Emory need role models,” Graves said.
“Having someone to help me as I go gives me more confidence.”
Career confidence, guidance, direction and support are all ideas
Mentor Emory coordinators hope the program imparts to both its mentors
and mentees.
“A mentoring program can be an important career development
tool,” said Facilities Management’s Elaine Gossett,
a PCSW staff concerns committee member who helped develop Mentor
Emory. “Oftentimes women do not realize all that goes into
‘building’ a career and ‘paving’ a career
path."
Mentor Emory finds its roots in the PCSW’s 1998 survey, Invisible
Barriers to the Advancement of Women, a 148-page report with quantitative
data from female staff members that included suggestions for programs
that could enhance the work environment for women. Three years and
countless discussions later, work began on creating a mentoring
program for staff women.
Last January, Gossett and Residence Life’s Marsha Hendricks,
a PCSW staff concerns committee member, met with the organizers
of a mentoring program at Georgia Tech. Armed with the lessons they
learned, the PCSW members teamed up to research more mentoring programs
with Pat Douglass, Adair Maller and Beth Grubb of Human Resources,
along with Marilyn Hazzard Lineberger of the Emory Well House.
What emerged was Mentor Emory and its mission to “introduce
female employees seeking career enrichment to experienced female
staff … to empower female staff member to develop their abilities.”
“It’s important for all women and for all people to
have a mentor,” said Douglass, assistant vice president for
Human Resources. “With the diversity of careers available
within Emory, female staff have unlimited opportunities to learn
from the best.”
While mentees will receive career coaching and participate in workshops
to enhance their career skills, mentors will share practical experiences
and advice from their own careers. The two will be paired on professional
skills, career goals and areas of expertise.
Following their initial orientation in July, the six initial program
pairs will meet again for two scheduled “lunch and learn”
sessions this month and in October, and will assess the program
along the way. Most of the meetings between mentor and mentee will
be conducted independently among the pairs, Douglass said.
“Going forward, we will evaluate the program in December
through feedback from the mentors and mentees,” Douglass
added.
“What [program administrators] will do from time-to-time
is offer skills building sessions for the mentees as well as for
the mentors. Then we’d like to do an assessment periodically
of the mentors and mentees to see how [the program] is doing.”
Although the program has already matched six pairs, Mentor Emory
is accepting applications from mentees and mentors on a rolling
basis.
“There is no deadline. As a mentee comes in and wants to
be paired with a mentor, and we have one on board, we match them,”
Douglass said.
For more information on the program and to download an application,
visit its website at www.emory.edu/mentor_emory
or contact Adair Maller at 404-727-7591 or amaller@emory.edu.
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