This award recognizes a scholar who has excelled at mentoring others in achieving their career objectives through moral, social, and intellectual support. We define each of these criteria in more detail below:
- Intellectual support: Helps the mentee develop ideas constructively (e.g., by brainstorming, offering a sounding board, suggesting a diverse perspective, providing written feedback) – investing one’s (scarce) intellectual capital in the service of mentees.
- Social support: Helps the mentee develop a professional network that will allow him/her to be successful (e.g., introducing them to others, writing reference letters, suggesting them as co-authors/reviewers/editors) – investing one’s (scarce) social capital in the service of mentees.
- Moral support: Genuinely cares about the well-being and development of the mentee (e.g., encouragement through difficult times, helps maintain self-efficacy, provides a perspective or specific career/work strategies) – investing one’s (scarce) mental energy in the service of mentees.
- This year, the award committee consisted of:
Maurice Schiweitzer (University of Pennsylvania)
Dana Carney (University of California, Berkeley)
Katy Deselles (University of Toronto)
The winner of 2023: Blake Ashforth
Blake has made a tremendous impact on many scholars in the field. Nominators described him as “unique is his selfless kindness” and “one of the best mentors I have experienced, or even heard of” and “one of the warmest, most selfless, but simultaneously intellectually stimulating mentors I have ever had (and that I think exist in our field).” Everyone who nominated him emphasized that his mentorship extends not just to those he has an institutional affiliation with, but to anyone who reaches out to him – “While we were never at the same institution, Blake was a consistent positive presence throughout my graduate school experience”.
Past award winners: