Influential Mentors:

A Guidebook for Building Mentoring Skills and Capacity (Georgian Edition, 2026)

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This guidebook is designed to support mentors and mentees at various stages of their careers—from early-career researchers to academic leaders—who seek to build meaningful, effective mentoring relationships. It aims to provide practical tools, reflective activities, and culturally responsive approaches that can be adapted to diverse settings, with a focus on strengthening research capacity. 

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• Becoming a mentor

• Setting Expectations between Mentors and Mentees

• Communication for Influential Mentoring Relationships

• How to be a Successful Mentee

• Building Mentoring Capacity 

• Evaluating Mentorship

 

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What to expect in each Chapter

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In Chapter 1, Becoming a mentor, we provide an overview of mentoring definitions and concepts. The chapter outlines typical roles and responsibilities of mentors and mentees. At the end of the chapter, the activities lead mentors through a series of questions that identify their unique values and desired goals as mentors. Most importantly, the chapter includes a table that solicits comparisons and clarifications between the roles of mentors, supervisors, advisors, and other similar positions. The chapter includes a discussion on approaches to mentoring across different cultural and social contexts.   

 

In Chapter 2, Setting expectations between mentors and mentees, we focus on setting expectations between mentors and mentees to develop a solid foundation for a successful relationship. The chapter includes guidance on how to create an Individual Development Plan (IDP) that is used for mentees to outline their career goals and receive feedback from their mentors. We also share how to develop a mentor-mentee agreement which is a written document that describes the key dimensions of the mentoring relationship. This chapter includes a mentoring assessment for mentors and mentees to complete to learn more about their approach to mentorship and how to develop shared expectations and approaches to the relationship. 

Chapter 3, Communication, feedback, and working style, focuses on mentoring working styles and building strong communication skills between mentors and mentees. We provide a communication assessment and guidance on how mentors can give mentees feedback in ways that are more likely to be applied by mentees. These tips are essential for successful mentorship given that communication is at the core of all mentoring interactions.   

 

Chapter 4, How to be a successful mentee, is a bit different from the other chapters as it is written directly for the mentee. We urge mentors to review the chapter and then perhaps share it with their own mentees. The chapter provides activities that allow mentees to thoughtfully determine how to select and approach a mentor. The chapter guides mentees on how to use their mentor’s time effectively and efficiently to optimize the benefits of the relationship while remaining respectful and professional.   

 

In Chapter 5, Building mentoring capacity, we address building mentoring capacity in an academic department, school, or university. The activities take the reader through a structured process to identify how mentoring fits within the realm of the department or university’s mission and vision, and concrete steps for developing and implementing a mentoring program.  

 

Chapter 6, Evaluating mentorship and mentoring programs, provides strategies on how to evaluate mentorship and mentoring programs. This is a critical component to successful mentorship. Mentoring relationships and programs should be monitored and adapted to the changing needs of faculty, students, and academic and healthcare settings. 

 

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About the Authors

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Dawn L. Comeau, PhD, MPH, is a Professor in the Department of Behavioral, Social, and Health Education Sciences at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, with a secondary appointment at the Emory University School of Medicine. Her expertise centers on developing, adapting, and leading mentor training programs that strengthen both individual mentoring relationships and institutional mentoring cultures. Dr. Comeau has worked internationally—in the United States, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Cambodia, and the country of Georgia—collaborating with universities, health centers, hospitals, and research institutions to advance mentorship and leadership development. She has designed and implemented numerous iterations of mentor training, tailored to diverse academic settings and cultural contexts, and currently directs several international and university-wide mentorship initiatives. In her leadership roles, Dr. Comeau has shaped strategic priorities, launched innovative institutional initiatives, and supported interdisciplinary teams of faculty, students, and staff to achieve ambitious goals in complex academic environments. She co-authored the first edition of this book with her Ethiopian colleagues and continues to partner with international institutions to expand the impact of mentorship in higher education and research.

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Maia Kipiani, MD, is a physician and epidemiologist who has been affiliated with the National Center for Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (NCTLD) in Tbilisi, Georgia, for over 20 years (since 2004). She currently holds the position of Coordinator of TB Management and Control Services for the National TB Program of Georgia (since 2014) and has also served as the Tuberculosis Infection (LTBI) Coordinator under the Global Fund TB Project in Georgia since 2021. Since 2021, Dr. Kipiani has been serving as Associate Program Director of the D43 grant “Emory-Georgia Tuberculosis Research Training Program,” based at NCTLD. In 2023, she was appointed Deputy Head of the Scientific Research Unit at NCTLD, where she is responsible for oversight and coordination of all research activities. Additionally, she serves as Site Principal Investigator (PI) and Co-Investigator on NIH/NIAID R01-funded studies, in collaboration with partners from Emory University, Georgia, and the University of California, San Francisco. NCTLD has established strong international research collaborations with institutions such as Emory University (USA), the Swiss Institute of Tropical Medicine, and the Koch-Mechnikov Forum (Germany), among others.

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