In December, a Tedx talk titled, “How to keep the next generation of brilliant scientists”, was given by Fátima Sancheznieto, a UW-Madison scientist with the UW ICTR mentorship group and the UW-based National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN) Coordination Center.
Sancheznieto describes the need for intentional and effective mentoring relationships within the sciences. She suggests that we should “leverage the science of human interaction to help young scientists become happier, healthier, more creative and innovative” in their pursuit of knowledge. This talk stems largely from Sancheznieto’s advocacy as president of the nonprofit organization, Future of Research, and her mentorship intervention and facilitation work through ICTR.
Sancheznieto brings a strong perspective to this work based on her prior experiences as an investigator in biomedical research. That time gave her an insight into the role of mentorship in advancing the careers of early-stage investigators and eventually sparked a transition into the emerging field of mentorship.
ICTR was a natural fit for Sancheznieto’s scholarship. For the last decade the ICTR mentorship team has developed and implemented evidence-based mentorship education and continues to research the most effective ways to train the next generation of science leaders. With a national presence, the ICTR team emphasizes tested approaches combined with broadly based dissemination to the Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) consortium and other academic institutions.
As an example, Sancheznieto was first author on a recently published study in the Journal of Clinical and Translational Science, Clinical and Translational Science Award T32/TL1 Training Programs: Program Goals and Mentorship Practices. This article described results from a nationwide survey of training programs for clinical and translational scholars including program goals, trainee characteristics, and mentorship practices. Other UW co-authors include Christine Sorkness, Senior Associate Executive Director representing Work Force Development programs, and Linda Scholl, former ICTR Director of Evaluation, now with the CTSA site at Mayo Clinic. Christine Pfund, Director, Mentorship Initiative at ICTR, Center for the Improvement of Mentorship Experience in Research (CIMER) and the NRMN Coordination Center, comments,
Dr. Sancheznieto is at the forefront of our mentorship initiatives through ICTR, NRMN and CIMER. She is a strong advocate for graduate student and post-doctoral trainees and pushes for their diverse voices to be included and highly valued in our work. Fátima’s emerging research on outcomes expectations and values alignment for trainees is incredibly exciting.