Mentoring Spotlight: Building a Successful Relationship Despite 2020’s Challenges

This feature introduces some of the outstanding people who have participated in the IAPHS Mentoring Program.  The program introduces individuals needing advice on career-building in population health to mentors willing to help them along.

In this Mentoring Spotlight, we feature mentor Roland J. Thorpe Jr. and mentee Carlos Tavares. Roland is a Professor in the Department of Health, Behavior and Society at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where he co-directs the DrPH Concentration in Health, Equity, and Social Justice and the Johns Hopkins Alzheimer’s Disease Resource Center for Minority Aging Research. Roland was recently elected President-Elect of IAPHS, a position he will assume this fall. Carlos is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Lafayette College. He has a 2018 PhD in sociology from Duke University, where he developed interests in race and ethnicity, health, aging and the life course, social stratification and mobility, and religion.

Carlos sought out an IAPHS mentor for several reasons.  Teaching at a small liberal arts college, he realized that although he had supportive colleagues, he would need to look beyond his own institution to develop his network of population health colleagues and mentors. He also wanted someone who could guide his efforts to maintain a productive research and publishing record. Carlos and Roland have met every month since being matched by the mentoring program in late January 2020. Carlos tells us:

“Roland has been such an effective mentor over the several months that we have worked together. His commitment to helping me navigate my early professional career and further my research agenda has helped me tremendously. He has given me timely feedback on my current work and helped me to think through my long-term research goals. Additionally, his insight into how to balance research alongside teaching and other commitments has been crucial at this stage of my career. Having regular meetings with a well-established senior mentor such in my area such as Roland has been a very positive experience.”

Roland, in turn, is very impressed with his mentee: “Carlos has been quite the early career investigator.  He is one of the brightest mentees that I have worked with over my career.  He has a bright future and I am excited to watch him develop into an outstanding researcher!”

The IAPHS Mentoring Committee thanks both Carlos and Roland for participating in the program.  The professional development of population health scholars is a key goal for IAPHS, and mentors and mentees alike are helping to make it happen.

IAPHS will be welcoming new mentees to the program once again starting in January 2021. Visit the Mentoring Page for more information about the program.