Transcript Does Mentoring Matter: Enhancing Mentor Development and

Mentoring and Diversity
Mitchell D. Feldman, MD, MPhil
Associate Vice Provost, Academic Affairs
Professor of Medicine
Renee Navarro, MD, PharmD
Vice Chancellor for Diversity and Outreach
Michael Adams
Director, Office of Affirmative Action, Equal Opportunity and Diversity
Copyright © Mitchell D Feldman, MD, MPhil.
Preview
1. Overview of diversity issues at UCSF
 Renee Navarro
2. Unconscious Bias
 Implicit Association Test
 Reflection on Difference
3. Vignettes
Copyright © Mitchell D Feldman, MD, MPhil.
What is unconscious bias?
• Unconscious bias refers to social
stereotypes about certain demographics
or groups of people that individuals form
outside of their own conscious
awareness.
Copyright © Mitchell D Feldman, MD, MPhil.
Unconsious Bias
• Trix and Psenka (2003) analyzed letters of rec for
medical school faculty
– Letters for women were shorter, more likely to contain gender
terms (“intelligent young lady”), more likely to contain ‘doubt
raisers’
• Golden and Rouse (2000) found that blinded auditions let
to sig increase in women hired in orchestras
• Bertand and Mullainathan (2003) examined impact of
race on job call-backs
– Resumes with white names (eg “Greg”) had a 50% greater
chance of receiving a call-back than did resumes with traditionally
AA names (eg “Lakisha”)
Copyright © Mitchell D Feldman, MD, MPhil.
“Unconscious Bias”
• Homework Assignment: Take one of the Implicit
Association Tests (IAT) which can accessed at
http://implicit.harvard.edu (go to Demonstration tests).
There are a number of tests to choose from but we would
recommend one of the following: Race; Gender-Science;
Gender-Career; Sexuality
• You should plan on about 30 minutes for this exercise
• After you have taken the test--write down your reactions.
• What did you learn about your own unconscious bias? How
do you think this could impact on your relationships with
colleagues generally, and specifically on your work with
mentees?
Copyright © Mitchell D Feldman, MD, MPhil.
Trigger Vignettes
Copyright © Mitchell D Feldman, MD, MPhil.
“Playing the race card . . .”
My Latino mentee, who just recently was appointed to Assistant Adjunct
Faculty, submitted a K01 training grant that was unscored. The main
reason given was that it was unclear how the training would be different
from what he has been doing as a postdoctoral researcher on my own
research projects. He has responded to all critiques. The research he is
involved in affects minorities disproportionately and it is his stated
desire to serve the underrepresented in his research effort. However,
he does not want to "play the race card" in his grant application and
explicitly state that he is a Latino. I believe that that is a mistake in
today's funding situation. While I understand his pride ("I don't want
special treatment"), I also want him to succeed as the unique person he
is at UCSF and in his type of research.
• How can I best encourage him to use his ethnicity not as a trump card
to get favorite treatment, but as a strength to his research?
• And should I in fact try to do so or not?
Copyright © Mitchell D Feldman, MD, MPhil.
Asking for personal information
• A fellow (or post-doc) from Japan has just joined
your research team. As his research mentor, you
have met several times to discuss his professional
goals and career objectives, potential research
projects, sources of funding, and general timelines
for their professional life, but you realize that you
know very little about his personal goals and
objectives and general timelines for his personal
life.
• Should you ask about this "personal" information?
Why or why not?
Copyright © Mitchell D Feldman, MD, MPhil.
Generational Values
• Dr X is a 32 year old Assistant Professor who joined the faculty five
years ago. When first hired, he had negotiated to work 80% time in
order to spend more time at home with his young child but had planned
to increase to 100% in a few years to pursue the research he had
started during fellowship. Lately, however, he is feeling increasing
‘work-life conflict’ and is thinking of cutting back to 70% to have more
time to coach his son's soccer team and pursue his black belt in Aikido.
He has not raised these issues with his mentor, a 55 year old
Professor, whom he senses is growing frustrated with him.
• What is the role of the mentoring relationship in promoting work-life
balance? What are the responsibilities of the mentor and mentee to
insure that work-life balance is addressed? How are work and life
expectations identified, and can they both be met? To what extent are
the differing value systems of Dr. X and his mentor a factor in their
relationship?
Copyright © Mitchell D Feldman, MD, MPhil.
THANK YOU
Copyright © Mitchell D Feldman, MD, MPhil.