Joi Mondisa receives National Science Foundation Career Award

PEOPLE:

Joi Mondisa, U-M Industrial and Operations Engineering (IOE) assistant professor, was awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Career Award for her research on mentorship of minoritized undergraduate students in STEM.

“For mentors in higher education, minimal examples exist that detail effective mentoring approaches, strategies and competencies that help minoritized mentees to persist and graduate,” Mondisa said.

Mondisa was inspired to begin this project by the evidence of mentorship positively affecting and influencing the persistence of minoritized undergraduates in STEM.

As the sole PI of the project, Mondisa plans to examine the approaches and strategies of those mentors who are currently effective. She will also examine the experiences of the same mentors’ mentees. From this work, she will create an inventory of evidence-based mentoring approaches, strategies and educational resources.

“I am extremely excited to receive this distinguished award to further my mentoring research,” she said. “Through mentoring, I foresee an increase of students completing degrees and joining the workforce in STEM fields.”

“I am extremely excited to receive this distinguished award to further my mentoring research. Through mentoring, I foresee an increase of students completing degrees and joining the workforce in STEM fields.”
Joi Mondisa

Assistant Professor, U-M Industrial & Operations Engineering

Mondisa’s research sheds light on how mentoring helps to support and increase the number of STEM minoritized undergraduates.

Joi Mondisa joined UM-IOE in 2016. Her research interests include examining mentoring approaches, relationships, and intervention programs and designing and assessing learning experiences and outcomes. Recently, she also received funding for a project aimed at evaluating the use of virtual mentoring for HBCU undergraduate students in computer science.