Building Mentorship Networks to Support Black Women

"Dr. Bridget T. Kelly and Sharon Fries-Britt's book on mentoring as a critical success factor for Black and other women in academia brings to light the strategies in which we have engaged to support one another as we navigate institutional structures, politics and barriers toward successful careers in higher education. This book underscores the importance of mentoring as a general concept and the ways in which Black women and women of color have created their own networks, sister circles and freedom trains to survive, thrive and excel despite "trials on every hand" in the words of a traditional spiritual. Most importantly, this book validates my story and that of so many of my colleagues and provides a strong message that mentoring should not only come from those who may look like us. This book will encourage all members of the academy to think more intentionally about their own responsibility to mentor that next generation of scholars, particularly those of us, women scholars of color, who have for too long been underrepresented in higher education."
- Dr. Lori S. White, President, DePauw University

"Building mentorship networks to support Black women eloquently captures why mentoring networks cultivated by and for Black women are so vital to their educational trajectories. A mentoring resource with broader applicability, each contributor, takes specific care to unpack the complex experiences of Black women in higher education, particularly how they must navigate spaces not readily prepared to treat them with warmth; hence, institutional leaders should take notice if they wish to genuinely foster spaces and opportunities for Black women. Page by page and line by line, this book breathes life into a generation of Black women who are either traversing the academy or aspire to."
- Dr. Lori Patton Davis, Professor and Chair, Department of Educational Studies, The Ohio State University

"Building Mentorship Networks to Support Black Women is a captivating account of the value of Black women in the academy to other Black women in the academy. Here, the editors have masterfully built upon and expanded their canonical framework of co-mentoring in ways that bring to light even more of the obvious, and less than obvious, mechanisms for mentoring Black women in the academy. From the one who mentors to the mentorless, no one is ignored in this book. From the physical to the spiritual, no connection to wellbeing is overlooked. And from the in-person to the digital, no platform is discounted. For any Black woman (or others) who has experienced a betrayal of the academy, this book offers a lifeline to the support, validation, and strength you need. It is guaranteed to leave you treasuring the mentoring relationships you already have with other Black women, regretting those you’ve let go of, and looking for more ways to value those you may have taken for granted."
- Dr. Kelly M. Mack, Vice President, Undergraduate STEM Education; and Executive Director, Project Kaleidoscope, Association of American Colleges and Universities

"Building Mentoring Networks to Support Black Women reminds us of our responsibility to uplift, support and sometimes even carry our sisters, and of the power that results when we, as Black women, act as each other’s keepers. Affirming and thoughtfully written, each chapter, will lead you to reflect on the mentoring experiences that have shaped your life while prompting you to consider how to more fully cultivate and nurture new and existing mentoring moments."
- Dr. Danette Gerald Howard, Senior Vice President and Chief Policy Officer, Lumina Foundation

"In Building Mentoring Networks to Support Black Women, Drs. Bridget Turner Kelly and Sharon Fries-Britt have curated a master class on what it takes for Black women in the academy to succeed and how they are ensuring their own success. It’s time to dismantle dominant, western frameworks of what mentoring is, who needs it, and who can do it. Kelly and Fries-Britt, in company with their stellar cadre of authors, have shown us the way and now we must follow."
- Dr. DL Stewart, Professor and Chair, Higher Education, University of Denver