January 6, 2025

Dear Colleagues:

Registration is now open for Spring 25 EnCircle mentoring circles. Register here by 1/29/25.

EnCircle is designed to support women and non-binary faculty members through a mentorship network across a variety of disciplines and appointment types.

The program is open to faculty of all identities and career stages (tenured, pre-tenure, continuing, contract, and adjunct faculty) who seek to support women and non-binary faculty members. This is the seventh year of the program, and previous EnCircle members are welcome to participate again.

The Spring 25 EnCircle session features two IN-PERSON mentoring circles, including circles centered on support of faculty of color and early career faculty. Please follow the link below to view available dates and times:

Register here by 1/29/25

The base time commitment is six, 1.5-hour meetings with expectations for brief check-ins with other participants between circles.

This spring we are offering two tracks designed to focus on: 1) early career faculty and 2) faculty members of color (with full recognition of the overlap in these groups). All circles are open to faculty members of any identity who aim to:

  • Promote a sense of belonging by building connections and community across campus
  • Develop and strengthen practices that promote healthy work-life integration
  • Support and mentor women and non-binary faculty members

Track One: Core Skills in Academic Work for Early Career Faculty Members

  • Focus on:
    • Identifying core skills for academic work and connecting with skill-building resources through the National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity (NCFDD)
  • Additional time commitment of 1 hour per week three times during the program to review NCFDD materials

Track Two: Connections and Community in support of Faculty Members of Color

  • Focus on:
    • Facilitating deep conversations and relationship building in support of faculty members of color
    • Addressing issues specifically facing women and non-binary people of color at the university
    • Optionally incorporating NCFDD materials noted above, as decided by the group

How do I join?

Register here by 1/29/25. Spots are limited, so sign up soon! The form is short and should only take 5 minutes. Please have your calendar handy.

  • Registrants will receive a follow-up email within 5 business days confirming their registration and sharing calendar invites with meeting location.
  • Any questions? Jen Dawrs (Faculty Success Program Manager) will be happy to answer them at [email protected].

Thank you for your interest!
Sent on behalf of the Faculty Success Team

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Meet our Facilitators

Meara Faw — Facilitator for Track One

Meara is an Associate Professor in the department of Communication Studies with specific interests in interpersonal communication and health. Meara is also an affiliate faculty member in the Colorado School of Public Health. Her research interests include how the relationships we have with friends and family affect our health and well-being at multiple levels. Learn more about Meara’s work here: https://www.libarts.colostate.edu/people/mfaw/

Sagarika Sarma — Facilitator for Track Two

Sagarika currently serves as an Assistant Director of the Office of Case Management and Referral Coordination and Interim Director of the Asian Pacific American Cultural Center. Her position is centered on collaboratively creating solution focused interventions with/for students experiencing crisis (crisis as defined by them) and connecting them to resources across the university and the community. Additionally, Sagarika also serves as a facilitator and resource person for the Office of Inclusive Excellence’s training arm. Sagarika also served as faculty in the President’s Leadership Program until Spring 2022 and taught the concluding year of the 3-year program there.

A first-generation immigrant, Sagarika is originally from Assam, India. She is a proud alum of Indraprastha College for Women, University of Delhi, and Colorado State University. Sagarika and her family now calls Fort Collins home and they shuttle back and forth between Assam, India and Fort Collins, USA pretty frequently!

Background on mentoring circles

Women and non-binary people at all stages of their academic careers face challenges related to their gender identities. A key part of the solution is to build a culture of support through formal mentoring structures. Mentoring Circles in institutions of higher education are known to create job satisfaction, provide support and a sense of belonging, support tenure and promotion, and help members feel comfortable in the higher education profession (Thomas, M., Bystydzienski, J., and Desai, A. 2014. “Changing Institutional Culture through Peer Mentoring of Women STEM Faculty,” Innovative Higher Education 40: 143-157).

Mentoring Circles are composed of small groups of faculty members, representing different departments, career stages, and experiences, who meet on a regular basis to discuss shared topics of interest under the guidance of a trained facilitator. Topics of interest are varied and might include: administrative processes, culture and equity, research collaborations, work-life balance, professional support with feedback, among others (“Best Practices for Mentoring Early-Career Faculty,” the University of Wisconsin-Madison).

EnCircle is intended to increase job satisfaction, motivation, productivity, and stimulate creativity and collaboration. The program will supplement the more grassroots and specialized mentoring programs that have emerged within disciplines (e.g., Women in Science groups). Mentoring Circles that integrate faculty from across the university are likely to spur relationships and collaborations, which in turn can facilitate interdisciplinary scholarship and nurture best practices for supporting women and non-binary faculty. Mentoring Circle practices are crucial in supporting careers at all stages, are especially beneficial to women and non-binary faculty, and can transform our institutions to achieve better professional outcomes for all.

EnCircle is a program originally developed by the Council for Gender Equity on the Faculty, now run out of Faculty Success, with generous support from the CSU Office of the President and Office of the Provost and Executive Vice President.