Re-Defining the Who, When, and Where of Mentoring for Professional Statisticians

ABSTRACT

Organizations tailor their mentoring strategies to accommodate internal resources and preferences, producing different approaches in academic, government, and corporate environments. Across these settings, three common barriers impede effective mentoring of statisticians: overspecialization, time constraints, and geographic dispersion. The authors share mentoring strategies that have emerged at their organization, Mathematica Policy Research, to overcome these obstacles. Practices include creating a methodology working group to unite researchers with diverse backgrounds, integrating mentoring into existing workflows, and harnessing modern technological infrastructure to facilitate virtual mentoring. Although these strategies emerged within a specific professional context, they suggest opportunities for statisticians to expand the channels through which mentorship can occur.

KEYWORDS:

• Informal mentoring
• Group mentoring
• Interdisciplinary mentoring

Acknowledgment

The authors thank Mariel Finucane, Adam Coyne, and Jennifer Littel for careful review and suggestions, Erin Maley and Henness Hao for supporting data, and two anonymous reviewers and the associate editor for helpful critiques.