Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol. 2021;41:00–00. DOI: 10.1161/ATVBAHA.121.316558 November 2021 1 Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol is available at www.ahajournals.org/journal/atvb Correspondence to: Elena Aikawa, MD, PhD, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 77 Ave Louis Pasteur, NRB 741, Boston, MA 02115, Email eaikawa@bwh.harvard.edu; or Hanrui Zhang, MB, PhD, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, 630 W 168th St, P&S 10-401, New York, NY 10032, Email hz2418@cumc.columbia.edu For Sources of Funding and Disclosures, see page XXX. © 2021 American Heart Association, Inc. BRIEF REVIEW What Makes a Great Mentor Interviews With Recipients of the ATVB Mentor of Women Award Hanrui Zhang , MB, PhD; Zhen Bouman Chen , MB, PhD; Gabrielle Fredman , PhD; Delphine Gomez, PhD; Isabella M. Grumbach , MD, PhD; Ngan F. Huang , PhD; Patricia Nguyen, MD; Mireille Ouimet, PhD; Nadia R. Sutton , MD; Elena Aikawa , MD, PhD T he American Heart Association Council on Arterio- sclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology (ATVB) brings together a unique group of world-leading scientists from diverse fields within the ATVB research communities. The ATVB Council’s Women’s Leadership Committee aims to promote excellence among women in science and academic medicine and raise new lead- ers. Our goals are to encourage the advancement of women’s scientific careers, promote visibility, and pro- vide forums for professional networking to cultivate collaboration within and outside the ATVB community. Every year, the Women’s Leadership Committee hon- ors established scientists of the ATVB Council whose actions have demonstrated their exceptional service in the mentorship, support, advocacy, and sponsorship of women in the field of cardiovascular biology with the ATVB Mentor of Women Award. This year, as the Women’s Leadership Committee celebrates its 20th anniversary, the members of this committee interviewed 11 past recipients of the Mentor of Women Awards: Mary Sorci-Thomas (2002), Alan Daugherty (2010), Rama Natarajan (2011), Lisa Cassis (2012), Coleen McNamara (2014), Lynn Hedrick (2015), Muredach Reilly (2016), Kerry-Anne Rye (2017), Kathryn Moore (2018), Nancy Webb (2019), and Murray Huff (2020; Figure 1). Our mentors were asked to provide answers to 11 questions that reflect their vision of outstanding mentorship. The Women’s Leadership Committee is thrilled to report the insights gained from these inter- views and hopes it will serve as a useful reference to both mentors and mentees. QUESTION 1. WHICH QUALITIES ARE IMPORTANT FOR A GREAT MENTOR? As effective mentors may share many qualities, we asked the awardees to select what they view as the most important traits for successful mentoring from our prees- tablished list (Figure 2). One top quality that stands out is honesty, which is also linked to authenticity and integ- rity. As Dr Reilly emphasized, “Honesty is critical to help the person knowing that you are authentic.” Dr Daugh- erty also believes that an effective mentor is “not afraid to have difficult conversations if you see that a trainee is going down the wrong road.” Likewise, Dr McNamara said “It is important to recognize and acknowledge train- ees’ strengths and weaknesses. Otherwise, they can’t improve.” On the other hand, sometimes it is important to acknowledge upfront that “look, I don’t know what the best thing to do here is, but I am going to give the best advice,” a remark from Dr Rye. Through these honest conversations, Dr Cassis summed up a mentor’s role by stating “Our trainees can trust us as mentors, talk to us, and listen to us.” While it is critical to be honest and firm, it “doesn’t mean to be cruel, blunt, or not reflective. It comes with kindness,” continued Dr Reilly. Also suggested by Dr Natarajan, “Always try to put a positive spin even in a difficult conversation,” which highlights communication skills as another key element of effective mentorship. The second most highly valued quality is flexibility, which also comes with reflectiveness as emphasized by Dr Reilly, and open-mindedness and empathy, accord- ing to Dr Webb. Dr Daugherty explained that this entails Key Words: medicine ◼ mentors ◼ science ◼ thrombosis ◼ women Downloaded from http://ahajournals.org by on September 23, 2021