Linda George
Professor of Sociology and Professor of Psychology: Social and Health Sciences
Linda George has won many awards in her nearly 30-year career at Duke. But of all the recognition she has received, George values the mentoring awards the most. That's the most meaningful part of her professional life, she said. “My papers will grow dusty on the shelves -- they are already dusty on some of my shelves,” she said. “But my legacy is the students who are going on, hopefully to the kind of wonderful career that I've had.”
George recently earned a Dean's Award for Excellence in Mentoring, sponsored by the Graduate School to recognize faculty members for exceptional work with graduate students. Previously, she had been honored with a similar award from the Gerontological Society of America. George is a sociologist with appointments in both the sociology and psychology departments and associate director of the Aging Center.
In the course of her career, George has guided hundreds of graduate students, undergrads and postdocs. That adds up to thousands of hours of listening, advising, introducing, editing, critiquing and shoring up. Yet George insists she is the beneficiary. “I don't think the students realize how much they give me,” George said. “I learn from them, too. . I describe my students as the one part of my professional life where I get immediate gratification.”
A good mentor looks beyond getting a student through a dissertation, she said. Networking is especially important in the field of sociology, where about 90 percent of sociologists will work in academia. George gives credit to her department for reaching out to colleagues at other schools to place new graduates. And she applies herself to introducing her students to everyone she knows in the field. “It's my responsibility and my love to engage them in the profession,” she said.
Being a saleswoman for sociology and her students is part of her job, George said, and she presents her discipline enthusiastically. With one foot also in the Department of Psychiatry (she spent her first 15 years at Duke in that department), she has a long history of working with in multiple disciplines. “I had to prove I was bringing something to the table that was useful and exciting,” she said. “I got into the habit of selling my discipline . so people can say, 'Wow, those sociologists do interesting stuff.' ”
That enthusiasm carries over into her work with students, who are No. 1 in her life, said Elizabeth “Jody” Clipp. George was Clipp's mentor beginning in 1984 when Clipp was a postdoc. Two decades later, Clipp still sometimes turns to George, even though Clipp is now a full professor and runs the doctoral program at Duke's nursing school. “I still go to her when I'm in a corner and have to figure out a solution,” Clipp said. “She brings a new perspective, many answers to many questions.”
Mentors have been important in George's own career, she said. The only one in her family to leave their Ohio farming community to go to college, she completed an undergraduate degree at Miami of Ohio University and had been a social worker for a few years when she met Duke professor George Maddox at a gerontology meeting. He advised her to pursue graduate studies at Duke. By the time she arrived home from the conference, an application to Duke was waiting for her. “I would never have come to Duke had it not been for Dr. Maddox's pre-admission mentoring,” she said.
During the two years it took her to complete her doctorate and two additional years she spent as a postdoc at Duke, George relied on Maddox and James House for advice and assistance. Looking back on those days, she said, “I can't believe I was as demanding as I was. I had the usual belief that the world revolved around me.” Her mentors, she said, “never indicated to me I was a pain in the butt.” George applies that same patience and responsiveness to the students she guides, Clipp said. “She sets the bar high and is incredibly patient and nurturing,” Clipp said. “She empowers students to succeed. . You want to keep coming back for more.”
Clipp also noted that George separates her students' goals from her own, focusing on their careers, projects and problems. Students remain close to George even after they graduate. They comprise a surrogate family for her as they move on to successful careers across the country. George has worked with as many as five or six graduate students a year as well as acting as an informal mentor to undergraduates and postdocs. She encourages her students to speak at conferences, working with them to pull presentations together and write a vita. She advises on career moves and bolsters self-esteem when a job search takes a long time. “I don't sleep much,” she said. “If I'm going to do something, I'm going to do it in a way I'm proud of it. I'm not going to work with students if I don't give them my very best.” And now the students she has worked with over the years are guiding a new generation, Clipp said. “I find myself trying to mentor like Linda,” Clipp said. “She taught me how to be selfless when you're with another person, to focus entirely on them and their goals.”
-Nancy Oates
Reprinted from Dialogue (April 8, 2005) with permission from Duke News Service.