Dental Mentor Participant

MENTOR QUALITIES:

A mentor should be a senior-ranking commissioned officer in the grade of O-5, O-6 or above, with eight years of service in the Commissioned Corps. They will be selected from a pool of volunteers, with a premium placed upon broad knowledge of the culture and workings of the Commissioned Corps generally, and the Dental category specifically. Officers with less than eight years of PHS service, but broad experience in organizational dentistry will be considered as mentors on a case-by-case basis by the Program Coordinator.

A sub-category of Consultant or Resource Mentors will be established, these officers not being assigned specific protégées, but being tapped for their viewpoints derived from great length and breadth of service, i.e. mentors for mentors on an as needed basis.

Selection of Mentors:

• Mentor candidates must have eight years of Commissioned Corps experience and have volunteered for the program.
• Solicitation for participation will be made via a Mentoring Program announcement, distributed through a variety of sources. (e.g. PHS Dental Category Web Page, Commissioned Corps Bulletin, agency-level e-mail announcements)
• Information on strong potential mentoring candidates will be solicited from Chief Professional Officer and various program directors. Those identified will be lobbied for participation.
• Mentors must be familiar (or become familiar) with career tracks and opportunities within their programs.
• Mentors should have a minimum of two years experience within their current program.
• Mentors should be one rank (preferably two) senior to protégé.
• Mentors should be from all PHS dental programs and be knowledgeable of their program's operations and career opportunities.
• Mentors should be from diverse backgrounds in re: gender, ethnicity, career track, and agency. The pool of Mentors should reflect the diversity of the Commissioned Corps.
• Mentors should not be in the protégé's chain of command or at least not be the COER rater or reviewer for the protégée.
• Mentors should have sufficient time to dedicate to the Mentoring Program and be enthusiastic in their approach to nurturing and teaching the protégée.
• Potential mentors with multiple programmatic experience should be identified and encouraged to participate.