The Role of Mentoring in the Development of Female Community College Leaders Profiles of Eight Successful Women

A leadership crisis is not approaching; we are in the midst of it. At a time when
community colleges are being called on to create a stronger nation through higher
education, aging senior leaders retiring at above normal rates, in combination with a
shallow pool of future leaders, is creating a critical gap for community colleges.
According to a 2012 report by the American Association of Community Colleges
(AACC), three-quarters of community college presidents surveyed planned to retire
within ten years. Data showed the number of post-graduate degrees earned in community
college administration had dropped significantly as well. On the verge of a leadership
void, community colleges must focus efforts on rebuilding the pipeline.
Developing new talent by building leadership capacity is a critical component of
addressing the needs of community colleges. Ensuring sufficient leaders, capable of
enhancing both the quality and quantity of these centers of educational opportunity, is
vital. Experts say successful colleges of the future will be the ones who are cultivating
new generations of leaders at every level today. Throughout history, mentoring has
proven to be an effective tool in the growth and development of future leaders and should
be considered a viable option for creating a pipeline of future community college leaders,
more specifically, female leaders.
This qualitative study was carried out in an effort to understand the role mentoring
played in the development of current female community college leaders. Specifically, it
examines the parameters of mentoring relationships through in-depth conversational
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interviews with eight female community college leaders. Their mentoring relationships
were both formal and informal, with male and female mentors of varying ranks, both
internal and external to the protégé’s institutions. Through an analysis of the interview
text, data were organized into clusters; as a result five themes emerged: (1) opportunity,
(2) trust, (3) confidence, (4) support, and (5) guidance.
There is much work to be done in order to prepare the next generation of female
community college leaders. With the pending shortages in leadership community colleges will face in the coming years, information about mentoring shared by current female leaders is particularly useful as to those preparing to fill leadership roles in the future.