MENTORING PRACTICES AND THEIR IMPACT ON STEM FACULTY LEADERSHIP AND INCLUSIVE COLLABORATION

Mentoring in faculty development is seen as a catalyst to broaden the participation of underrepresented groups in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) leadership. STEM faculty leaders are organizational influencers with or without formal authority or appointments. Within the fields of STEM, mentoring is often construed as more than Corresponding Author: Kula A. Francis senior faculty mentoring junior faculty. This study explores the College of Liberal Arts and perspectives of 13 professors and chairs at Historically Black Colleges Social Sciences, University of and Universities (HBCUs) on faculty mentoring based on semi-structured the Virgin Islands, United interviews conducted by the Center for the Advancement of STEM States Leadership (CASL). The main questions addressed in this study are: What, if any, mentoring styles or strategies do STEM faculty leaders acknowledge and employ? What specific leadership styles are associated with mentoring in HBCUs for STEM faculty who acknowledge mentoring as an aspect of their leadership? The findings of this study suggest that STEM faculty leaders who adopt transformational, servant leadership, and intellectual styles find value in mentoring.