University Senate’s October 19 Plenary Session to Focus on Mentoring Staff, Faculty, Students

Department of Family Medicine Chair Jeannette South-Paul to be session’s keynote speaker

        Jeannette South-Paul 

“Fostering Mentoring for Sustaining Organizational Vitality” will be the theme of the University Senate’s Fall Plenary Session, 2-5 p.m. Oct. 19 in the William Pitt Union’s Assembly Room.

Jeannette South-Paul, chair of the Pitt School of Medicine’s Department of Family Medicine, will be the session’s keynote speaker. Other speakers will include Patricia Beeson, Pitt vice provost for graduate and undergraduate studies; Cecil Blake, chair of the Department of Africana Studies in the University’s School of Arts and Sciences; and John Weidman, professor of higher education management in the Pitt School of Education. Consuella Lewis, an assistant professor of higher education management, will moderate the session.

A series of workshops on mentoring, led by Pitt faculty members and administrators, will be held throughout the academic year. Each workshop will be held in 4127 Sennott Square, from noon to 1:30 p.m.

Following is the schedule of workshops:

Oct. 24: “Graduate Student Mentoring: Student and Faculty Perspectives” (target audience: graduate students and faculty)

Assistant Professor Consuella Lewis and doctoral students Corinne Gibson and Meghan Murphy of the School of Education’s higher education management program

Nov. 14: “How to Develop a Staff Mentoring/Coaching Program for Your Responsibility Center” (target audience: mid-level administrators and supervisors)

Jayne Watkinson Thompson, associate vice chancellor, planning and analysis

Jan. 23: “Career Advancement and Mentoring” (target audience: staff)

Samuel D. Conte, University Registrar

Feb. 14: “An Example of an Ongoing Mentoring Relationship at Pitt” (target audience: faculty)

Ellen Olshansky, professor in the School of Nursing, and Ellen Frank, professor of psychiatry in the School of Medicine

March 28: “Planning Your Career at the University of Pittsburgh” (target audience: staff)

Sherry Miller Brown, director of Pitt’s McCarl Center for Nontraditional Students

April 5: “Mentoring Students and Leaders” (target audience: faculty and staff)

Audrey Murrell, a professor in Pitt’s Katz Graduate School of Business, and two winners of the 2006 Provost’s Award for Excellence in Mentoring: Celia Brownell, a professor of psychology in the School of Arts and Sciences, and Alan Sved, professor of neuroscience in Arts and Sciences and codirector of the University’s Center for Neuroscience