Chair: Tabitha Schepker

Co-Chair: Alison Jirak

Co-Chair Elect: OPEN

Contact: mentorship@vadcoordinator.org

Considering being a Mentor or Mentee?

CHECK OUT THIS INTERVIEW

Mission

The Mentorship Committee offers the MCS Community quality support that leads to professional growth and independence. Our philosophy involves collaboration with those we serve: VAD patients, multidisciplinary VAD teams, communities, and professional organizations. And it is with this we continue to collaborate and foster the mentoring program in working dyads to innovate, energize, and offer support to all action multidisciplinary team members of ICCAC. Growth, empowerment, and sharing of ideas is extremely important to ICCAC and these goals are reflected in our mentoring program.

2025 Goals

• Connect 12 dyads
• Build a “bank” of > 25 mentors
• Execute introductory virtual meetings with mentor/mentee and a mentorship co-chair 
• Administer, collect and evaluate 3 month and 12-month surveys
• Coordinate and execute quarterly specific mentorship webinars
• Continue communication and outreach of mentorship committee
• Provide programmatic structure, goals, expectations for successful dyads
• Award a minimum of (1) dyad the opportunity to meet in person at each other's center or a mutually agreed upon ICCAC networking event in 2025 

ICCAC Mentorship Program Expectations

• Upon applying as a mentee please allow approximately 4 - 12 weeks to be appropriately paired with a mentor
• Open enrollment for all mentor/mentee dyads will be quarterly beginning in either January, April, July, or October  
• Mentors will be rotated based on the requests of the mentee and paired appropriately by interest(s)
• If more than (1) mentor meets the request of a mentee the mentors will be chosen in order of application submission with areas of expertise taken into consideration based upon mentee requests. New mentors will be given an opportunity before a previous mentor serves again.
• If more than (1) mentee meets the request of a mentor, the mentee will be paired in the order their application was received
• Initial virtual visits are expected to occur quarterly and within the first month of each open enrollment period
• An invitation for the initial virtual visit between mentor/mentee will be sent out and conducted by one of the mentorship co-chairs and include the following:
  1. Discussion regarding goals and skills you’d like to achieve or obtain by working with your mentor. Please be as specific as possible.
  2. Setting boundaries and expectations
     • Identify approximate meeting dates, times, and platform(s)
     • Acceptable methods of communication and response times
     • The mentee should come prepared or email questions and/or topics for discussion before scheduled meeting
     • The mentee should avoid directly asking a mentor to share policies or protocols
  3. Expectations and completion of a successful mentor/mentee dyad
     • Identify a minimum of one goal to achieve in the program
     • Meet as a mentorship pair at least once every 2-3 months for a minimum of (4) times for approximately a 60-minutes
     • Recommend attending all (4) mentorship webinars
       • Webinar dates: 3/18/2025, 5/20/2025, 8/19/2025, 11/18/2025
     • Required to attend a minimum of (2) mentorship webinars
     • Log all dates and time spent in mentoring hours under the manage dyad mentorship link
     • Complete the 3-month survey +/- 1 month and 12-month survey at the end of the program
     • Verbal agreement to follow through on 12-month dyad commitment and mutually agreed upon travel grant location if dyad deemed successful
     • Submit log, webinars attended, surveys, and agreed upon meeting place to be considered for a travel grant to meet your mentor in-person 
  4. Travel grant opportunities for mentor/mentee to meet in person at their respective institutions or at an agreed upon ICCAC networking event held in conjunction with a national or international conference upon completion of a successful dyad
     • A minimum of (1) successful dyad will be awarded travel grants to meet in person in 2025
     • Successful dyads will be announced in June
     • The names of each successful dyad will be entered into a random lottery and 1-2 dyads (pending budget approval) will be chosen in front of board and committee members at the ICCAC annual board meeting OR live during the one of the Mentorship Meetings 
     • Reimbursement for flight (national $600, international 2K), Hilton Honors or convention/conference related hotel, (2-night stay for center specific visit and 3-night stay for conference meeting held in conjunction with ICCAC networking event), taxi to hotel and return to airport, and conference registration if required will need to be approved by mentorship committee chairs and paid for upfront by the awardee and submitted for reimbursement after attendance to the event to ICCAC treasurer with proof of attendance, receipts, and required ICCAC travel grant scholarship obligations 
       • General ICCAC Travel Grant Requirements:

         1. Attend the event or conference with proof of attendance (certificate, CEs, or signed travel form)

         2. Attend the ICCAC associated event (if applicable)

         3. Take at least one photo of yourself at the event that can be shared on social media

         4. Write a brief synopsis of the experience (3-5 sentences) to be used on social media or in the next ICCAC update email

         5. If there is an ICCAC table or booth at the event, join the ICCAC representatives for at least one hour to meet other ICCAC members/board