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' Every faculty member needs a mentor. I think we should always be students, we should always be hungry to learn more, and we should always have someone we can strive to emulate. ' T i m o th y Er i c k s o n , MD P h o t o : D i a n e Sm u t n y regardless of their career track, that this institution is taking their professional development very seriously, that there are opportunities for advancement here and that there are senior faculty members who are willing, able and eager to help them advance," says Erickson. "It's a win-win situation for our junior faculty, for the college and for the future of medicine." Getting the program off the ground has required months of planning, a thorough review of best practices in mentoring programs at medical schools across the country and in NIH-funded mentoring programs, as well as the collective expertise of a carefully chosen mentorship committee. One of these committee members is Stacie Geller, PhD, who has led mentoring workshops throughout the U.S. as well as in India, New Zealand and other countries, and who has been actively involved in leadership and mentoring activities for women and underrepresented minorities on the Chicago campus. Geller has mentored more than 20 junior faculty members, clinical postdoctoral fellows and PhD candidates in her various roles as the G. William Arends Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, director of the UIC Center for Research on Women and Gender, director of the National Center of Excellence in Women's Health and principal investigator for the NIH-funded women's career development program, Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health. Daniel Hryhorczuk, a professor of medical toxicology and environmental health (left), has been mentor for nearly a quarter-century to Timothy Erickson, professor of emergency medicine and toxicology, associate dean for faculty affairs, director of the Center for Global Health—and head of the committee designing the college's formalized faculty mentorship program. Her motivation for sitting on the mentoring committee stems in part from her own experiences. "Being a woman in medicine has its struggles," she reflects. "I had some very good mentors who recognized my capabilities and supported me in being daring and taking next steps and pushing my career forward. But I've seen huge disparities in promotion and tenure and leadership opportunities for many women in academic medicine. Women are far less likely to become full professors, deans or department heads —and it seems to me that a lot of this has to do with the guidance and mentorship that these women are getting, or not getting, early in their careers." As Geller's own career has progressed, she has made it a priority to help level the playing field, and she has channeled considerable energy into the development of the new faculty mentoring program because she believes it has the potential to make this goal a reality—not only for women, but for every underrepresented minority. BIRCWH program director and co-investigator Pauline Maki, PhD, a professor of psychiatry and psychology who also sits on the mentoring committee, shares Geller's commitment. Maki has mentored illinois medicine | 19