NSHE Mentoring Institute 2025 (MI2025): Creating a Culture of Support for Research & Learning Through Mentorship, Collaboration, and Effective Communities of Practice
October 8, 2025
8:15 AM – 5:00 PM
October 9, 2025
8:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Alexis Park Resort & Conference Center
375 E. Harmon Avenue
Las Vegas, NV 89169
- 23 Days
- 13 Hrs
- 40 Min
- 45 Sec
About the Training
Get Ready for MI2025 – Where Innovation Meets Mentorship!
This year’s NSHE Mentoring Institute (MI2025) is more than just an event—it’s a high-energy, collaborative experience designed to ignite connections and elevate STEM across Nevada! Join research faculty, graduate students, postdocs, and administrators from across NSHE for a dynamic forum that fuels discovery, fosters meaningful mentorship, and builds lasting professional networks.
Led by expert facilitators from the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR), this year’s sessions will ignite innovation and collaboration through:
✅ Explore equitable outreach strategies to expand student engagement in undergraduate research.
✅ Learn the power of tiered and peer mentoring—from student-to-student to faculty-to-faculty relationships.
✅ Discover proven methods to foster inclusion of diverse populations in research mentoring.
✅ Create actionable SMART plans to promote sustained growth, equity, and excellence in mentorship and research.
Whether you’re looking to grow your impact, expand your network, or shape the future of STEM, MI2025 is your launchpad. Let’s build, inspire, and lead—together!
Please complete online registration by Friday, September 12th, 2025.
As this is an intensive training, space is limited. In the event more applications are received than spots are available, applications will be reviewed, and selections will be made based on academic and research interests and optimal group composition.
This is a draft agenda and subject to change.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2025 – APOLLO CONFERENCE RM 1
| 8:15 am – 9:00 am | Breakfast/Check in |
| 9:00 am – 9:30 am | Welcome and Introductions: Building Networks and Collaborations to Support Broaden Participation in STEM Academia and Workforce – Introductions & Overview, Michele Casella, NSHE Sponsored Programs & NSF EPSCoR |
| 9:30 am – 10:15 am | Speed Networking Event – Getting to know About NSHE Programs –CUR |
| 10:15 am – 10:50 am | Values, Challenges and Opportunities for Research Experiences and Mentorship in Nevada, Joyce Fernandes & Lance Barton, Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) |
| 10:50 am – 11:00 am | Break |
| 11:00 am – 12:00 pm | PANEL – Programs, Practices and Partnerships that Promote Mentorship, Cultures of Support and Research Integration in NSHE |
| 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm | Lunch (Apollo 3-4) |
| 1:00 pm – 2:45 pm | Breakout/Track Sessions – TBD, Facilitated by CUR |
| 2:45 pm – 3:00 pm | Break |
| 3:00 pm – 4:45 pm | Breakout/Track Sessions Part 2 |
| 4:45 pm – 5:00 pm | Reflection and Looking Forward |
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2025 – APOLLO CONFERENCE RM 1
| 8:00 am – 8:30 am | Breakfast – Apollo 3 |
| 8:30 am – 9:30 am | Recap of Day 1 PM Sessions – Assessing common themes and determining working groups & Desired Goals – Short/Mid/Long-term (determine subgroups), Facilitated by CUR |
| 9:30 am – 9:45 am | Break |
| 9:45 am – 11:15 am | Establishing blueprints to achieve goals to advance communities of practice for broadening participation through mentorship, collaboration and cultures of support |
| 11:15 am – 11:45 am | Setting the Stage for MI2026 – What to do to get to where we want to be |
| 11:45 am – Noon | Closing – Wrap Up and Evaluation – Boxed lunches to go |
Guests residing outside of Clark County are eligible for reimbursement for allowable travel costs associated with participation in MI2025. Travel arrangements must be processed and reconciled through your institution’s travel policies and procedures. Once travel claims have been fully reconciled, NSHE Sponsored Programs-EPSCoR will work to reimburse funds back to your institution.
FOR HDRFS FACULTY, POST-DOCS & GRAs
Participants funded through the NSF EPSCoR HDRFS (Harnessing the Data Revolution for Fire Science) project:
- Are not eligible for MI2025 travel support. Please use project travel funds already allocated for your participation.
- Exception: HDRFS graduate and post-doctoral students are eligible for travel reimbursement to attend MI2025.
Travel Planning Instructions for Graduate & Post-Doctoral Students
- Coordinate with your HDRFS faculty supervisor or administrative assistant to ensure your travel complies with your institution’s Travel Policies & Procedures.
- A Spend Authorization via Workday is required before booking any travel (airfare, lodging, etc.).
Room reservations must be made by September 16, 2025 to be guaranteed a room at the preferred rate!
Lodging:
Alexis Park Resort & Conference Center
375 E. Harmon Avenue
Las Vegas, NV 89169
Conveniently located three minutes from the Las Vegas Strip, Alexis Park All Suite Resort appeals to a wide base of customers including business travelers, families, and tourists alike, as it offers all suite accommodations and a resort environment (with no casino), and all of the amenities, where one can relax, while strolling the lushly landscaped grounds.
Call Reservation Office: Individual guests associated with your group may also call the reservation office at 800-582-2228 or 702-796-3322 to make their room reservations. To receive the group rate, the caller must identify their affiliation with the Group: NSHE Mentor Institute – 2025 or refer to Group Code: NSHEMI7.
Website: When reserving rooms on the hotel’s website, the group code must be entered under “Group Attendee” for your group rate/link to appear. Click on the downward arrow next to the discount code and a dropdown box pops up with “Group Attendee” as an option. Enter the group code NSHEMI7 in the box and click “add “The group link pops up and the next step is to book.
Airport Transportation to Hotel from Harry Reid International Airport:
Lance Barton
Director, Office of Undergraduate Research, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Lance Barton, Ph.D. is the Director of the Office of Undergraduate Research first arriving in June 2023. He earned his B.S. from Dickinson College and his Ph.D. from the University of Cincinnati, College of Medicine. He is a broadly trained biochemist and cellular immunologist who has worked with students on projects related to immunology, cell stress, and cancer biology. His own career in STEM was sparked through undergraduate research experiences. Consequently, his passion is helping students learn through research. He has previously taught multiple course-based research experiences (CUREs) for undergraduates and mentored 80 students on individual and team projects in his laboratory. During a two decade faculty career at Austin College, he founded the Austin College Scholars Conference (ACSC) and the Center for Research, Experiential, Artistic, and Transformative Education (CREATE) to support students and faculty in mentored and collaborative research endeavors. Nationally, he has been a CUR Councilor for 10 years, serving a previous term as Chair of the Biology Division, and was recently elected to the Board of Directors of the Council on Undergraduate Research.
Joyce J. Fernandes
Professor of Biology at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio
Joyce J. Fernandes is Professor of Biology at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Dr Fernandes teaches courses in Cell Biology, Developmental Biology and Neurobiology. Her research examines neural plasticity during the reorganization of motor systems in the fruit-fly Drosophila melanogaster, which has many parallels to the developing adolescent brain. Dr. Fernandes’ research projects have been funded by the National Science Foundation as well as the National Institutes of Health. Dr Fernandes was co-PI on an NSF funded award that established the First Year Research Experience program at the institution.
Dr. Fernandes has served as the Director of Undergraduate Research since 2017, and in this role she has developed the First Year Research Experience [FYRE] program that provides early access to undergraduate research, provided workshop opportunities for faculty, graduate students and staff to enhance their impact on undergraduate researchers, facilitated the documentation of enrollments in independent study and research based courses, and established partnerships with institutional offices to raise the visibility of undergraduate research on campus and beyond.
Dr. Fernandes is affiliated with the Council on Undergraduate Research [CUR] as a representative in the Biology Division, member of the CUR-wide Council, and a member of the Advocacy and Partnerships Committee. She has organized and delivered multiple professional development workshops for early career faculty, graduate students and post-docs aimed at developing research programs that integrate undergraduate research experiences.
“This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. OIA- 2148788.”
Acknowledgement: This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. OIA- 2148788.