Benefits and Challenges of Mentoring in CSE and Beyond

Mentoring in CSE and Beyond: Personal Support in Professional Development Patty Baskin, Leslie Neistadt, and Barbara Gastel have long been leaders for the CSE Mentorship program. Based on a session from the 2024 CSE Annual Meeting in Portland, they have developed a series of articles on mentorship. The other two articles are available here: https://doi.org/10.36591/SE-4704-02, https://doi.org/10.36591/SE-4704-03 A Personal Experience I had been working about 6 months as managing editor of the Neurology journals at the American Academy of Neurology when my editor entered my office one afternoon. It’s important to understand the stature of this editor—he had been director of medical development at a major medical center and later was appointed the CEO of the health system, working at a national level with government leaders on changing health care. On this day, he sat casually in the chair opposite me and offered some advice. First, he reassured me that I was fulfilling all my responsibilities as expected. Then he made some other observations: “Patty, I’d like you to think more like an executive—to challenge our Associate Editors and Editorial Board, to tell them when policies need to be updated and changed, to be confident and trust your own knowledge, and ‘throw your weight around.’” He urged me to network more with senior staff in the organization, invite them to lunch as equals to learn more about their responsibilities, and even to “misbehave” a bit, for example, cancel routine meetings as needed in order to prioritize my time and energy for what […]