Nicole Ashpole, an associate professor of pharmacology at the University of Mississippi, was awarded one of three national Faculty Mentor of the Year awards at the annual Institute on Teaching and Mentoring in October in Atlanta.The Institute is the nation’s largest annual gathering of underrepresented Ph.D. students and college faculty members of color.

Ashpole was nominated by Ole Miss doctoral student Cellas Hayes, who calls her “a major champion for diversity” and “the key reason why I will finish my Ph.D.” Ashpole, he says, “embodies everything that this award stands for. She is devoted to ensuring the success of every student she teaches, not only as a scientist but as a person.”

To address the nation’s continuing shortage of African-American, Hispanic and Native American faculty, the SREB-State Doctoral Scholars Program hosts the annual Institute on Teaching and Mentoring, a collaboration of programs across the country that support minority Ph.D. students.

The Institute on Teaching and Mentoring is the largest gathering of minority doctoral scholars in the country. Now in its 29th year, the Institute gives the issue of faculty diversity a national focus and provides minority scholars with the strategies necessary to survive the rigors of graduate school, earn the doctoral degree and succeed as members of the professorate.