Estela Mara Bensimon: A True Mentor

By Andrea Bennett on April 6, 2009 7:58 AM

Estela Mara Bensimon, USC Rossier School of Education professor and co-director of the Center for Urban Education, was selected as a recipient of the USC Mellon Faculty-to-Faculty Award for Excellence in Mentoring.

Her work with and guidance of budding scholars throughout her career have produced a substantial collection of reputable faculty and policy analysts around the country.

“Estela is arguably the matriarch of mentoring in the field of higher education in the United States,” said Alicia Dowd, who co-directs the Center for Urban Education with Bensimon. “She has invested hours of her time to provide advice and wise counsel to me and innumerable other emerging scholars.”

“She has also invested tremendous energy in creating networks and new structures to institutionalize her commitment to a renewed scholarship of higher education that will support and value a more diverse professoriate.”

Bensimon’s most recent initiative is the ASHE Institutes for Equity and Critical Policy Analysis, which epitomizes her commitment to nurturing early career scholars and their research of racial and ethnic inequalities in higher education.

The institutes are supported by the Ford Foundation and presented in collaboration with colleagues at Columbia University Teachers College, UCLA, the University of Houston, the University of Virginia, the Institute for Higher Education Policy and the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education.

The basis for the ASHE Institutes is to cultivate effective research methods among early career scholars who are interested in the subject of racial and ethnic inequality in higher education. The five institutes, which begin this summer, already have attracted more than 100 applicants.

“There’s a good deal of interest in finding new ways to study and address racial and ethnic inequality within higher education,” said Sandra Luca, coordinator for the ASHE Institutes. “One of the overarching goals is to create a network of scholars, both faculty and policy analysts, who have these ideas in mind, so as a community we can start addressing these issues.”

The ASHE Institutes are the creation of a community of equity-minded scholars, which Bensimon envisioned would provide young academics in the field with formal and informal networking opportunities with seasoned scholars.

It is a pattern that can be traced throughout Bensimon’s career. She has nurtured countless new faculty members by offering guidance for their research and career focus, and she has connected many of her peers through a professional network that has led to the genesis of many new collaborations and ideas.

Her influence is evident in the long list of faculty colleagues, former students and even classmates from graduate school who have come forward to share the many ways in which Bensimon had supported and mentored them in their careers.

Lindsey Malcom was a recipient of Bensimon’s mentorship, from her days as a doctoral student to her current position as an assistant professor at the University of California, Riverside.

“She remains a major source of professional and personal support for me as I continue to develop as a scholar,” Malcom said. “Estela’s work has greatly contributed to our knowledge of the ways in which individuals can become advocates for equity in their everyday practice. Her active support of me and so many other junior scholars is also indicative of her unwavering commitment to equity.”

The USC Mellon Mentoring awards are part of a larger, university-wide effort to recognize mentoring and are integral to the Mellon Mentoring Forum, which meets twice a year to brainstorm different aspects of mentoring.

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