The AFFECT committee is seeking volunteers to serve as mentors, and we ask that you consider sharing your knowledge, experience, and expertise with your more junior colleagues in our profession by signing up here to join our mentor pool. You can make a positive impact on others even with just an hour’s time commitment. We welcome senior/seasoned financial economist mentors of every gender, from every part of the world, and every institution type. Joining the mentor pool does not commit you to participate in any particular event.
We plan to organize various mentoring events and programs throughout the year and around the world, either online or in person at conference venues. Examples of events include Q&A sessions with an expert panel offering advice on specific topics and small group discussions online or at a table at a conference breakfast. Examples of programs include the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Mid-Career Mentoring program, which is held online, and the in-person Junior Faculty Mentoring Program (the day-long mentoring workshop held at theAFA meetings).
We aim to increase the availability of mentoring events and programs for junior members of the AFA by having a pool of senior members willing to serve in these roles. In short, we are asking individuals to indicate a willingness to serve by signing up at the registration link below. We will ask you to answer a few questions and indicate the types of mentoring events and topics of greatest interest to you. Your responses will become a database of potential mentors for future events and programs. The information you provide will be used only by AFFECT and designated event organizers to identify potential mentors and will not be made public. If you are a good match for a particular event or program, you will receive an invitation to participate at that time. Of course, you can always decline an invitation if the timing, topic, or venue does not work for your schedule.
Sign-up is easy and should take only a few minutes to complete (registration link and a FAQ with more details are below). It would be most helpful if you can please sign up by September 15, 2026, so that we may begin matching volunteers with upcoming events, but you can also sign up using the same link if you miss this deadline.
Program FAQs:
Q: Should I sign up if I live outside the United States or if I am not an academic (e.g., employed by a government agency or central bank)?
Yes! There is demand for mentors and mentoring events outside the U.S. and outside academia, and for some events it is important to match mentees with mentors in a similar time zone and similar institution type.
Q: What is the time commitment for serving as a mentor, and what if I want to remove myself from the list later?
The time commitment varies by type of event. The sign-up form will have a list of event types with time involved varying from an hour to a full day. An estimated time commitment will be included in any email requesting your participation at a particular event, and you of course can decline an invitation at that time. If at any time you wish to be removed from the volunteer mentor pool database, you can simply send a request to affect@afajof.org and you will be removed from the list (you can also find this email address on the AFA AFFECT website).
Q: What responsibilities does a mentor have?
Our mentoring events and programming are generally intended to be short-term, with nearly all of them one-time events as opposed to longer term mentoring relationships.
Q: Do mentors receive any compensation?
No, we rely on the generosity of volunteers who would like to pay it forward by volunteering their time to help others. To keep the programming free to mentees we are unable to reimburse any expenses, such as travel. However, we encourage you to include this important service to the profession on your CV and annual activity reporting.
Q: How can I get my questions about this program answered?
Please enter any questions in the box at this link here and an answer will be sent to you via email. Note that this link is just if you have a question. Please use the registration link above “Program FAQs” to sign up for the mentor pool.