Lekshmi Santhosh, MD, MAEd, an innovative leader in medicine, joins our Faculty Factory Podcast this week to discuss building an array of mentors, each playing a different role in your life and career journey in academic medicine.

She also encourages us to challenge conventional definitions of mentoring throughout this conversation. The concept of matrix mentorship invites us to explore the metaphor of a “bouquet of mentors,” which is a central theme of the interview.

At the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), Dr. Santhosh is an Associate Professor of Pulmonary/Critical Care Medicine and Hospital Medicine. She serves as the Department of Medicine’s Associate Chair for Mentorship and People Development and is the Associate Program Director for the internal medicine residency program at UCSF. She also holds the title of Gold-headed Cane Endowed Education Chair in Internal Medicine.

Her passion for mentoring trainees, early-career faculty, and peers shines throughout this discussion.

“Just knowing that one mentor is not going to be able to meet all your needs is really important,” Dr. Santhosh emphasizes.

Thank you to a dear friend of the Faculty Factory, Joshua Hartzell, MD, MS-HPEd, FACP, FIDSA, for recommending Dr. Santhosh as a guest on our show. It was a very memorable and special debut on the Faculty Factory Podcast for her.