What can research on mentoring teach us about building stronger, more equitable learning environments? In this episode, guests Ashley Finley, Jane Greer, and Jessie Moore unpack the scholarly roots of mentoring in higher education from foundational studies to the newest approaches shaping the field today. 

They discuss how theories from psychology, feminist practice, and relationship-rich education inform mentoring across disciplines, and why understanding mentorship as both an individual experience and a systemic force matters now more than ever. Along the way, they explore key questions about intentionality, equity, and what it means to study mentoring not just as an act of support, but as a catalyst for institutional change. 

View a transcript of the episode.

Meet Our Panel

Dr. Ashley Finley is the Vice President of Research and Senior Advisor to the President for the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U). She co-leads AAC&U’s Office of Public Purpose and Opportunity which develops integrative approaches to supporting the success of students in their career preparation, civic engagement, and well-being. Through research, campus-based projects, and partnerships, this work advances higher education’s commitments to supporting economic, community, and individual thriving. Her publications include: Academic Freedom and Civil Discourse in Higher Education: A National Study of Faculty Attitudes and Perceptions; The Career-Ready Graduate: What Employers Say About the Difference College Makes; and The Effects of Community-Based and Civic Engagement in Higher Education. She also serves as a commissioner for the WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC). 

Dr. Finley was previously the senior director of assessment and research at AAC&U and also national evaluator for Bringing Theory to Practice. She also served as the Associate Vice President for Academic affairs and Dean of the Dominican Experience at Dominican University of California, where she implemented a comprehensive framework for student learning and success centered around high-impact practices. Dr. Finley began her career as a faculty member at Dickinson College. She received a BA from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and an MA and PhD, both in sociology, from the University of Iowa. 

Jane Greer is a Curators’ Distinguished Teaching Professor of English at the University of Missouri, Kansas City (UMKC), and she is an affiliated faculty with the Center for Digital and Public Humanities. She also serves as UMKC’s also serves director of undergraduate research and creative scholarship. Her research on mentoring has been published in Innovative Higher Education, Mentoring and Tutoring, and CUR Quarterly as well as in several edited collections on undergraduate research. She is the coeditor of Pedagogies of Public Memory: Teaching Writing and Rhetoric at Museums, Memorials, and Archives (Routledge, 2015) and The Naylor Report on Undergraduate Research in Writing Studies (Parlor Press, 2020). She published Unorganized Women: Repetitive Rhetorical Labor and Low-Wage Workers, 1834– 1937 with University of Pittsburgh Press in 2023, and it received an honorable mention for the Winifred Bryan Horner Outstanding Book Award from the Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition. Her coedited collection Coauthoring with Undergraduates in Writing Studies: Revising Identities and Institutions is forthcoming from Utah State University Press in late 2025. At UMKC, Professor Greer teaches courses ranging from sophomore- level composition to graduate seminars in feminist rhetoric, public memory, and archival methodologies. 

Jessie L. Moore is director of Elon University’s Center for Engaged Learning and professor of Professional Writing & Rhetoric. She is the author of Key Practices for Fostering Engaged Learning: A Guide for Faculty and Staff and co-editor of five edited collections on engaged learning topics. In addition to coordinating the Center’s research seminars, Jessie produces the Center’s videos, podcasts, and other web resources and co-edits two book series: the Stylus Publishing/Center for Engaged Learning Series on Engaged Learning and Teaching and the Center for Engaged Learning Open Access Book Series. She also co-edits Teaching & Learning Inquiry, the open access journal of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Learn more about her work at https://www.jessiemoore.net/ and connect with her on LinkedIn. 

Episode Credits

This episode was hosted and edited by Matt Wittstein, and produced by Matt Wittstein in collaboration with Elon University’s Center for Engaged Learning.

Themes and music composed and produced by Kai Mitchell, Elon University Music Production and Recording Arts class of 2024. Kai produces music and releases it across streaming platforms with the producer’s name KVI. You can follow Kai on Instagram @theofficial_kvi.

Show art was created by Jennie Goforth and Nolan Schultheis.

Center Resources Related to this Episode

Books and Web Texts

Blog Posts

Other Resources

Baker, Vicki L., Jane Greer, Laura G. Lunsford, Dijana Ihas, and Meghan J. Pifer. 2018. “Supporting Faculty Development for Mentoring in Undergraduate Research, Scholarship, and Creative Work.” In Excellence in Mentoring Undergraduate Research, edited by Maureen Vandermaas-Peeler, Paul C. Miller, and Jessie L. Moore. Council on Undergraduate Research. 

Handelsman, Jo, Christine Pfund, Sarah Miller Lauffer, and Christine Maidl Pribbenow. 2015. Entering Mentoring. W. H. Freeman. 

Johnson, W. Brad, Laura L. Behling, Paul Miller, and Maureen Vandermaas-Peeler. 2015. “Undergraduate Research Mentoring: Obstacles and Opportunities.” Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning 23 (5): 441–53. https://doi.org/10.1080/13611267.2015.1126167.    

Johnson, W. Brad, and Charles R. Ridley. 2018. The elements of mentoring: 75 practices of master mentors. St. Martin’s Press.  

Johnson, W. Brad. 2007. On Being a Mentor: A Guide for Higher Education Faculty, 2^nd edition. Routledge. 

Kram, Kathy E. 1988. Mentoring at Work: Developmental Relationships in Organizational Life. University Press of America.  

Kuh, George, Ken O’Donnell, and Carol Geary Schneider. 2017. “HIPs at Ten.” Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning 49 (5): 8–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/00091383.2017.1366805.

Moore, Jessie L. 2024. “Meaningful Undergraduate Experiences and How They Matter Now. April 2024 Survey of Recent U.S. College Graduates.” Center for Engaged Learning. Accessed October 12, 2025. https://www.centerforengagedlearning.org/surveys/april-2024-survey/.

Mullings, Beverley, and Sanjukta Mukherjee. 2018. “Reflections on Mentoring as Decolonial, Transnational, Feminist Praxis.” Gender, Place & Culture 25 (10): 1405–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2018.1556614.  

Shanahan, Jenny Olin, Elizabeth Ackley-Holbrook, Eric Hall, Kearsley Stewart, and Helen Walkington. 2015. “Ten salient practices of undergraduate research mentors: A review of the literature.” Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning 5: 359-376. https://doi.org/10.1080/13611267.2015.1126162.

Sorcinelli, Mary Deane, and Jung Yun. 2007. “From Mentor to Mentoring Networks: Mentoring in the New Academy.” Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning 39 (6): 58–61. https://doi.org/10.3200/CHNG.39.6.58-C4.  

Walkington, Helen, Kearsley A. Stewart, Eric E. Hall, Elizabeth Ackley, and Jenny Olin Shanahan. 2020. “Salient practices of Award-Winning Undergraduate Research Mentors–Balancing Freedom and Control to Achieve Excellence.” Studies in Higher Education 45 (7): 1519-1532. 

Wardle, Elizabeth, and Nicolette Mercer Clement. 2017. “Double Binds and Consequential Transitions: Considering Moments of Identity During Moments of Rhetorical Challenge.” In Critical Transitions: Writing and the Question of Transfer, edited by Chris M. Anson and Jessie L. Moore, 161-179. The WAC Clearinghouse/University Press of Colorado. https://doi.org/10.37514/PER-B.2016.0797.2.06