Lisa Campbell: Making Life Easier for Her Students
Nicholas faculty member wins 2006 mentor award
Monday, April 24, 2006
Lisa Campbell of the Nicholas School | Duke University Photography
Durham, N.C. -- Lisa Campbell observed early on in her career: All graduate students are not alike.
“It amazed me to find out how different they are, despite having similar interest and backgrounds,” said Campbell, who recently received a 2006 Dean’s Award for Excellence in Mentoring. “I started out managing them as if they were all like me and they would do things like I would do. But you quickly learn that’s not the way things work.”
Campbell, the Rachel Carson Assistant Professor of Marine Affairs and Policy, studies environmental policy at the NicholasSchool of the Environment. She works with four doctoral candidates at present and will accept another next year. She also works with seven professional master’s students.
She joined the Duke faculty three years ago, after five years teaching at a university in Canada. The students she mentored in Canada followed her to Duke.
“I don’t think I would have come if my three Ph.D. students at the time hadn’t agreed to move with me,” she said. “They became a really important group.”
As social scientists, she and her students carve out a small community within the larger one of biophysical scientists at the marine lab in Beaufort. Campbell has cultivated a peer-review process among her students, allowing them to receive feedback from her and other students as well. One her students got so much out of the process that he continues to participate, even though he graduated last year.
Campbell learned to mentor from two people, her Ph.D. adviser and her supervisor when she worked for the Canadian government. Both mentors took different approaches with her. From her Ph.D. adviser, she learned the importance of doing things for students without making a big deal about it.
“In subtle ways, he made my life easier,” she said. “He was looking out for my best interests without me having to ask.”
She also appreciated that he understood she had a personal life outside of her studies.
“He recognized that while being a Ph.D. student was the central part of my life, it wasn’t the only part,” she said. That is of particular relevance this year, when all of her students are women, and they are looking at how she balances her career with raising a family. Some days, she said, she is a better example than others.
From her government supervisor, she learned the importance of setting high, but reasonable, expectations for students.
“He quickly figured out that I was capable of doing more than I was originally hired for, and he assigned me increasingly difficult and important tasks,” she said. “This was a real boost to my confidence and made me strive to always exceed his expectations.”
For Campbell, winning the mentoring award was secondary to being nominated.
“When I found out my students nominated me,” she said, “that was the big prize.”
