Mentoring Opportunities

Mentors Matter

Mentors Matter is a peer-mentoring program for physicians and advanced practitioners at any stage in their career to improve mentorship skills, enhance professional vitality, and to work on academic promotion. The application process is an open call to all faculty and advanced practitioners, applicants do need their Department Chairs support.

The program is comprised of 10 monthly 4-hour workshops, from October - July on Fridays 8:00 am - noon. 

If you have any questions, please email Raquel Belforti, DO, MEd, Associate Professor of Medicine, at RaquelDO.Belforti@baystatehealth.org or Kathryn Jobbins, DO, MS, Associate Professor of Medicine at Kathryn.Jobbins@baystatehealth.org.

2025-2026 Program Description

Background

In the field of medicine, literature has shown that having a mentor and being a mentor has been significantly associated with:

  • Increased research productivity
  • Higher rates of promotion
  • Increased retention rates of junior faculty
  • Increased perception of career success and vitality

Traditional mentoring occurs when a person with more experience mentors someone with less experience. Although this form of mentoring can be quite successful and lead to increased professional satisfaction and personal enrichment, it has its flaws, including:

  • A paucity of experienced mentors for junior faculty
  • Mentors may be limited to their own content expertise
  • Mentoring within a hierarchal schema may pose barriers to honest two-way feedback

Peer Group Mentoring (PGM) was designed as an alternative to traditional mentoring, in which a group of faculty of equal experience mentor each other. PGM has been found to allow for mutual feedback on career planning and success. Participants in PGM have the ability to work together to clarify their own career goals and priorities, as well as enhance their career vitality. In 2014, the Mentors Matter peer group mentoring program was developed in the Department of Medicine as an initiative to enhance mentorship in the Department. Drs. Raquel Belforti and Kathryn Jobbins are the directors for this program and are currently recruiting 10 BH physicians and/or Advanced Practice Providers for the 11th incoming class starting October 2025. Over the past several years the program expanded beyond the Department of Medicine to include participants from Vascular Surgery, Pediatrics, Neurology, Psychiatry, Psychology, OB/GYN, Emergency Medicine, Anesthesia, as well as advanced practitioners from Hospital Medicine, Primary Care and PMR.

The goal of the program is to provide faculty with the opportunity to improve their mentorship skills as well as enhance their own professional development towards academic promotion with the hopes that after completion of the program they will champion mentorship opportunities back in their respective departments.

Program Description

The program is comprised of 10 monthly, 4-hour workshops, one Friday per month 8-12pm occurring October 2025-July 2026. The time for participation will come from participants’ CME allotment for 50% of the time and the other 50% is covered by department colleagues.

Mentors Matter Goals

  1. Participants will improve their mentorship skills
  2. Participants will enhance their career vitality
  3. The mentors matter program will improve the culture of mentorship at Baystate Health

Mentorship Skills Objectives

  1. Compare and contrast Mentoring, Coaching, and Sponsorship
  2. Describe and perform reflective listening
  3. Identify barriers to effective communication and list ways to improve communication skills
  4. Identify and demonstrate effective feedback skills
  5. Describe and utilize Kotter’s Principles of Change
  6. Describe and demonstrate principled negotiation skills
  7. Describe and demonstrate conflict negotiation skills
  8. Identify ways to improve work-life balance
  9. Develop sponsorship skills for colleagues and self
  10. Active Bystander Training
  11. Discuss Imposter Syndrome and the basic concepts of self-coaching

Professional Development Objectives

  1. Complete an I-speak Evaluation
  2. Receive mentorship on a project
  3. Update CV to the UMass format
  4. Complete a UMass narrative statement
  5. Develop a plan for academic promotion
  6. Complete a values identification analysis
  7. Complete the Pololi 5-year career plan
  8. Complete training in Restorative Justice Tier 1 circle keeping
  9. Develop an Individualized Professional Development Plan

2025-2026 Program Dates

  • October 24, 2025
  • November 14, 2025
  • December 5, 2025
  • January 9, 2026
  • February 6, 2026
  • March 6, 2026
  • April 17, 2026
  • May 15, 2026
  • June 19, 2026
  • July 10, 2026

Back to Top