Armbruster Honored for Postdoc Mentoring Efforts

By Dirk Hoffman

The annual award recognizes mentors who excel in mentoring postdoctoral scholars through support, encouragement, and promotion of their research training, professional and personal development, and career goals.

Recipients are chosen by a selection committee consisting of faculty and postdocs.

“I spend a lot of my time thinking about the needs of my trainees and how to help guide them, both in science and in professional development, and I try to tailor my mentoring to each individual trainee and their goals,” Armbruster says.

“I consider mentoring to be the most important aspect of my role as a professor, and it is integral to establishing the kind of culture that I want for my lab group,” she adds. “To even be nominated by trainees for one of the distinguished mentoring awards is such a huge honor. I am deeply appreciative to have received this award.”

Armbruster says a critical aspect of being a mentor is to balance how best to encourage, support, and challenge each trainee to grow.

“It means creating a safe and supportive training environment and giving trainees the time and space for self-assessment and ensuring that they know any criticism is meant to be constructive,” she says. “To me, it also means being honest about my own strengths and limitations, and trying to foster a mentor-mentee relationship that allows trainees to convey what they need from me and whether I am meeting their expectations.”

“I have a very individualized style that I adapt for each mentee. I prefer not to micromanage, but instead make sure each trainee has access to all the resources they need and as much guidance as they need.”

Benjamin C. Hunt, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in Armbruster’s lab, submitted a nomination on behalf of Armbruster for the award.

He outlined how Armbruster has excelled as a mentor in areas such as professional preparation and fostering independence, noting she has been very proactive with his professional development from the very beginning of his postdoctoral career and eager to accommodate whichever path it would take.

“During my first few months, I had expressed an interest in developing my writing and reviewing skills, given an interest in a potential career working for a scientific journal,” Hunt says. “Upon learning this, Dr. Armbruster offered me chances to become involved in the review process with some of the papers she was charged with reading and set aside valuable time to have a one-on-one walk through her methods for how to properly review a paper.”

Hunt says Armbruster has taken it upon herself to introduce him to work within the lab that involves working with industry collaborators and providing links to people within the field.

“Her care for my professional development also reaches into the training I have done while in this lab, and she has made great care to help me learn valuable techniques, such as flow cytometry and high-performance liquid chromatography,” he notes.

Hunt also says Armbruster has facilitated and encouraged independence and sought his input on the directions in which he wished to steer projects within the lab.

He notes that Armbruster has also been “incredibly supportive” of his efforts to create, write, and submit an F32 award to push himself as an independent researcher.

“Throughout the process, Dr. Armbruster always made time and resources available for me when I needed them,” he says. “This experience has been invaluable in fostering the independence I will need as I continue in my career in science. Her care and enthusiasm for my science and myself as a person cannot be understated.”

For her part, Armbruster says an important function of mentoring postdocs is to make sure they receive critical guidance about the opportunities available to them.

“In graduate school, you come in with a cohort of other students who all have the same short-term goal, and you progress through coursework and major milestones in your training with this cohort,” she says. “Postdocs, on the other hand, are more isolated and don’t have as structured of a career development plan in place and are usually expected to be much more independent both in the lab and in their professional development.”

For those who want to become professors running their own research lab, they also need to decide on what will be the main research focus of their future lab, she adds.

“I think guiding this process is probably the most critical part of mentoring a postdoc, as you want to help them think about crafting a program that won’t directly compete with the work in your own lab while also assessing what training and skills they need to best set them up for success,” Armbruster says.

Armbruster has also been elected as the inaugural vice president of the Urinary Tract Infection Global Alliance (UTIGA).

It was formed in 2019 by Sheryl S. Justice, PhD, of The Ohio State University College of Nursing, to bring together medical professionals, biomedical scientists, government agencies, and industrial partners across the globe that are dedicated to understanding and eradicating urinary tract infections.

Because her professional career has benefitted enormously from participation in the UTI conferences and involvement with UTIGA, Armbruster says she is very excited to have been nominated for the vice president position, and to have the opportunity to support the mission of UTIGA as the society grows.

“During my three-year tenure as vice president, I will propose future directions and assist with new initiatives to better serve both our membership and patient populations,” she says.

Armbruster will then transition to the role of president for an additional three years, during which time she will supervise the day-to-day operations of the Society, chair all meetings of the members, the Board, and the Executive Committee, oversee the biennial conference, execute new initiatives, and plan future directions.