A $1 million gift from the James Hilton Manning and Emma Austin Manning Foundation will bolster Weill Cornell Medicine’s commitment to fostering a dynamic culture of mentorship.
The gift will support initiatives in the Mentoring Academy, established in May 2018 by Dr. Augustine M.K. Choi, the Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean of Weill Cornell Medicine, with the mission of developing leaders in healthcare and science. Dr. Ruth Gotian, assistant dean for mentoring and chief learning officer in the Department of Anesthesiology, is the academy’s executive director.
The board members of the Manning Foundation, which has supported Weill Cornell Medicine since the early 1990s, were inspired by Dean Choi’s passion for mentoring – and his advocacy for a world-class program that will nurture the next generation of physicians and scientists, and accelerate growth across the institution’s mission.
“We started thinking about supporting the Mentoring Academy after meeting with the Dean and learning about his vision for mentorship,’’ says John Bell, Jr., the foundation’s president.
“We wanted to be right there with seed money to get this program up and running,’’ says Susan Porter, the foundation’s treasurer and a member of Weill Cornell Medicine’s Dean’s Council. “We understand how important mentoring is, and to see Dean Choi go forward and formalize a mentoring program is very exciting for all of us. It’s going to make an extraordinary difference at Weill Cornell Medicine.”
Board members of the Manning Foundation also include two Weill Cornell Medicine physicians – Dr. Martin Post, clinical assistant professor of medicine, and Dr. Gillian Shepherd, clinical associate professor of medicine – as well as Juliet Alexander, who is secretary of the foundation.
Dr. Gotian, who has been with Weill Cornell Medicine for 22 years, has long been an advocate of mentoring as a pathway to success.
“Research has shown that those who are mentored outperform those who aren’t,’’ she says. “This gift will allow us to mentor every single type of faculty member, from junior to senior, from clinical to basic science, and it will also afford us the opportunity to utilize various platforms and landscapes to develop and run our programs. We have almost 1,800 faculty members with at least that many unique needs, and there is no end to the programming we can do, and the mentoring that we can provide, so that we can have the greatest impact.”
New mentoring initiatives launched at Weill Cornell Medicine in January, which is National Mentoring Month, included mentoring lunches, monthly mentoring chats with the Dean and a leadership development speaker series that kicked off with a lively presentation from Dean Choi on his personal journey with mentoring.
“We are so grateful for the Manning Foundation’s commitment to a vibrant spirit of mentorship at Weill Cornell Medicine,’’ says Dean Choi. “This generous gift will allow us to advance our mentoring initiatives on all fronts.”
