Happy Tuesday, everyone! In this episode of Grad Pod, we're proud to highlight Dr. Hamid Akbarali, one of the recipients of VCU’s inaugural Graduate Faculty Mentoring Award—for faculty members who go above and beyond to uplift and walk alongside their students.
HAYA: There's a moment in every graduate student's journey, maybe more than just a moment when things feel uncertain. You're trying to juggle research deadlines, maybe even teaching, and somehow still plan for what's next. In the middle of all of that, having someone in your corner, someone who sees your potential, even when you are struggling to, can make all the difference.
Happy Tuesday and welcome to another episode of Grad Pod! Today on the pod, we're talking about mentorship, not just as guidance or advice, but as a relationship that can shape the course of your graduate experience and beyond. We've mentioned the importance of networking many times on this podcast, but what do you do once you find that person that you want to be your mentor, that you feel and believe can help you throughout your journey, and be that person that you can lean on when things are not going right and someone to celebrate the great moments with mentorship doesn't always come in big or dramatic moments.
Sometimes it's quiet, like an encouraging email after a failed experiment. Other times it can be transformative like a mentor who helps you land your first fellowship or understands your worth in a competitive field. It's these moments that we want to celebrate today!
VCU is presenting its inaugural graduate faculty mentoring award to two faculty members, one early career, and one seasoned who exemplify what it means to truly invest in their students. It's more than just advising or checking in on milestones. It's about relationship building, advocacy, and walking alongside students as they grow, fall and get back up again.
HAYA: This year, we're incredibly proud to honor Dr. Hamid Akbarali, and Harvey and Gladys Haag Professor,in the Department of Pharmacology and toxicology and program director of the VCU Initiative for maximizing student development, or IMSD.
Dr. Akbarali is someone who doesn't just guide his students, he champions them. Through his leadership in IMSD, he has helped open doors for students from underrepresented backgrounds in biomedical research.
He's helped students find their voice in the lab, build confidence in their ideas, and pursue opportunities that they might not otherwise believe were within reach. His mentees describe him as generous with his time, honest with his feedback, and consistent in his support, even when it's inconvenient.
They speak of his warmth, patience, and how he never stops believing in their potential. Dr. Akbarali, welcome to the Grad Pod!
DR. AKBARALI: Thank you, Haya. Thank you so much for inviting me and I'm so glad to be here.
HAYA: Awesome. So my first question for you is, what does mentorship mean to you personally and how has it shaped your journey as a faculty member?
DR. AKBARALI: Right, Haya, so one of the things. I think mentoring really is, it's about recognizing that you're always learning, as a mentor or even as a mentee, you're always learning. And, I think this has been my journey. I'm still learning and I'm always learning and I'm learning from people. I'm learning from my mentees, and I hope that that really has been.
What I think hopefully is my success as a mentor is being able to recognize how my mentees move forward. And that really is the, the most important thing for me, I think, is being able to recognize that, you know, one of the things that I always say is that mentees are, you know, I, as I'm getting older and older, .
I'm learning, I'm learning from very young people. You know been a such a humbling and a, and a privilege for me to have mentored undergraduates, high school students, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows and junior faculty. And, it's this process, of recognizing all these people from different backgrounds and different ideas, that actually make up the mentoring and experience for me.
HAYA: Thank you for sharing that with us and I love that we're starting on the note of us being lifelong learners in this ever changing and dynamic world. And so that is a wonderful place to start in, start with, I was wondering if there was a particular moment or experience that reaffirmed the importance of mentoring in your academic? Career and professional career, or maybe it was a particular student's experience that from the importance of this mentorship relationship that you have with your students in the classroom and beyond.
DR. AKBARALI: Probably not any one person, but it's a collection and it's a collection of having gone through many, many different students coming from different backgrounds and having, and of different ages really, and that has really been the key I think for me in as an experience and so. Perhaps one of the, one of the finest moments, if I could say that, is when I see students who were with me many, you know, 20 years ago and are now very successful, and I sometimes see some of my mentees going up.
And you know, one of, one of the greatest moments is when you actually see one of your mentees stand up in a keynote address and you are sitting in the audience and you are watching this. And, that is really the key for me. And, I've seen that journey and I've seen that journey for students who have actually gone through academic progress, both as researchers.
Many of my students have actually gone on to professional schools who are now physicians and some of them are dentists and so just watching them. That is really the key. And I've, I've seen several of these and, think I've just been privileged to be able to have done that.
HAYA: Yeah, I it's definitely a full circle moment when you can see your students, become your peers.
Right., I was at an event yesterday where, , I saw a, , one of our associate deans at the graduate school, he was being honored, for an award along with his former student who , whom he advised through the PhD process. And it was just such a full circle moment, you know, taking a picture of both of them together and remembering when I was lining them up for graduation to get hooded at the commencement ceremony.
So thank you for sharing that.
In your role as program director for IMSD, how do you approach mentorship in a way that's inclusive and empowering for students from diverse backgrounds and sort of, you know, meeting them where they're at? How do you do that?
DR. AKBARALI: Right. So, you know, one of my colleagues once once said to me that, and, and this is a very well known, you know, the questions of this world need to be answered by people who look like this world.
And I think that is such a profound statement. And there are examples out there in the community where, you know, once you've trained somebody from different backgrounds can actually go back and understand their community and they can take that question to that community and be able to heal that community.
And that's what we are in the business of. We are in the business of healing communities. We are in the business of doing research. That's my passion. And one of the things that I like to do is get my students to have that fire in their belly. And that is my goal. My goal is when I see a student come in or can I get that fire in their belly going and that may take weeks.
Sometimes it's immediate sometimes it takes months, but you know, that is the goal and that is what we are always striving for. And once you see that, that's when you realize that, you know, you've reached that moment.
HAYA: So obviously you have a great experience with connecting with students, building rapport, and you really are, someone that students look up to and have a lifelong mentorship connection with.
And so this award is very well deserved. What advice do you have to other faculty or peers who want to become more effective mentors to their graduate students and sort of, you know, fulfill the same path that you are on?
DR. AKBARALI: Like I said earlier, you know, it's about learning. You have to recognize that you are always learning.
So that's the first thing you do.
Secondly, I think you have to be open to listening. Listening, listening to, in many ways, sometimes it's listening by words. Sometimes it's by action. But, being able to recognize that, I think that is really the key. And I think that is where I hope. You know, that's, that's really what I would, give as advice.
We are not just here, as a mentor, you don't just do advice, you give advice. Sure, you can do that advice in the form of a research paper or in, when you're in the lab, you are doing, you're giving advice in terms of how the experiments go. But it's beyond that, right? I mean, it's also about personal connections and, you know, there may be issues that are beyond the lab.
We have a population where we need to recognize that people are different, very different people, neuro divergences and is, you know, people have different, come from different backgrounds, have different ideas. And so being able to listen and being able to recognize that, I think is is important.
HAYA: Awesome. Thank you for sharing. And, finally, let's talk a little bit about you personally. What does it feel like to be recognized as the recipient of the Faculty Mentoring Award and what continues to inspire you and motivate you to invest in this mentorship year after year? And, I know you touched a little bit on lifelong learning, which is a great answer, but what's more personal to you?
DR. AKBARALI: This is so humbling for me. You know, I'm honored and I'm really humbled because this is an inaugural award that this Graduate School has had, you know, and, and being the recipient of an inaugural award is really, very humbling for me. We have such great mentors in this school and with such outstanding students.
So, I think, you know, being recognized for this is just a humbling process. And I, you know, I know my, my colleagues, all of them are really, really well deserving of this. So, you know, it's just been a privilege for me and it's been a lifelong privilege to watch my students do well. That is, that is the key the importance of this award, I think.
HAYA: Thank you for sharing that. And lastly, any words of encouragement to your mentees and, you know, your future students?
DR. AKBARALI: Keep doing what you're doing, keep doing. I know sometimes times are troubling. Sometimes you come across a lot of challenges in life, both professionally as well as, you knoe the challenges are personal too, but, just keep doing what you're doing. Keep an open mind, and I think you'll always be successful.
HAYA: Thank you, Dr. Akbarali!
DR. AKBARALI: Thank you Haya. Thank you very much, and it's been a pleasure to be here.
HAYA: We are so grateful to Dr. Hamid Akbarali for joining us today and for sharing with us what it means to lead with empathy, integrity, and vision.
His story reminds us that mentorship isn't a one size fits all model. It's practice rooted in care, connection, and the belief that every student belongs.
If you're a grad student looking for mentorship, don't be afraid to reach out. And if you're in a position to offer guidance, remember that even the smallest gestures can have a lasting impact.
HAYA: Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next time on the grad pod.
CREDITS:
Grad Pod is produced by VCU's Graduate School. Haya Hamid is our host. Our producer and editor is Grace Albritton. Our theme music was composed, performed, and recorded by Austin Sellek and Claudia Andrade, students of Felipe Leitao, assistant Professor of Composition and Sound Design at VCU School of the Arts.
Do you have a question for us? Email us at grad school@vcu.edu and we may answer your question on an episode!
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