A Primer on Mentoring

This article is designed for educators and industry leaders who are involved or interested in the development of faculty in higher education to meet the needs of students, institutions, and industry. Informal and formal mentoring strategies that aid in identification and support of qualified and qualifiable faculty are discussed. Also, strategies to facilitate an atmosphere for mentoring are presented along with an example of a successful mentoring program. We also discuss the term diversity as one of the desirable goals that mentoring may help to achieve, while emphasizing it in a context of the realities of our changing society of which those of us who prepare professionals must be aware.