ABOUT

Welcome! I'm glad you are here visiting to learn more about mentorship and leadership. My name is Erica Aros, and I'm the founder and owner of Mentor Culture Consulting. I am a mother, mentor-leader, scholar, higher education administrator, and leadership instructor.  I earned my Ph.D. in the Joint Doctoral Program in Education with San Diego State University and Claremont Graduate University, with qualitative research on the impact of mentoring on career advancement. 

With over 15 years of career experience in higher education working at primarily large four-year universities, I have worked in the areas of residence life, academic advising, student life, disability services, employee engagement, and am experienced in teaching, facilitating workshops, and public speaking. I've even had a short stint as a part-time wine educator in Temecula, CA!

While climbing through the ranks in my career, I have learned from many mentors how to effectively establish boundaries, advocate for myself and my teams, and some of my best supervisors have shown me that it is okay to show care and love as a leader in the workplace. 

About Mentor Culture

Past research, as well as my own research on mentoring, shows that the most impactful mentors are direct supervisors or senior leaders who have invested in their team members. The supervisor-supervisee relationship is a natural connection for mentorship, but not all supervisors have a mentoring approach. My research also revealed that the most impactful mentorships were developed informally, as opposed to a formal mentoring program. While the benefits of mentoring are career advancement, salary increases, academic degree attainment, etcetera, I found the negative aspects of mentoring (exposure to toxic political workplace culture and poor work-life balance/boundaries) to be important as well. 

My mission through Mentor Culture Consulting is to positively impact workplaces by transforming organizations into mentor culture workplaces, where every supervisor is guided by my mentoring framework, which addresses multiple layers of culture (organizational, career field, and identity culture) to provide impactful, culturally-conscious, and holistic mentorship. As a woman of color in leadership, it is my hope that through my workshops, speaking engagements, and consulting services, workplace cultures and leaders will be more caring, compassionate,  and inclusive so women and other minoritized groups can thrive. If you have a diverse group of team members and this is what you want for your organization, let's connect!

My Educational Degrees

Doctor of Philosophy, Education

San Diego State University | San Diego, CA

Claremont Graduate University | Claremont, CA

Master of Education, Educational Organization and Leadership

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign | Champaign, IL

Bachelor of Arts, English

University of California, Riverside | Riverside, CA

Check out my profile on LinkedIn if you would like to learn more about my qualifications, publications, and professional history.

Podcast Episodes