The UF Health Cancer Institute’s ONCO-GATOR mentorship program paired senior UF Health Cancer Institute members with newer members to provide research guidance, accelerate grant success and academic productivity, and foster a welcoming environment.
Ten pairs of mentors and mentees completed the inaugural cohort, which concluded with a celebration on June 12. The eight-month ONCO-GATOR program, which stands for Oncology Networking, Coaching and Opportunities – Guiding Advancement, Training and Onboarding for Researchers, included onboarding, mentorship and a training bootcamp.
Mentors benefited by gaining new vantage points and making lasting connections, while mentees built their capability and confidence, expanded their network and worked toward becoming mentors themselves.
“The conditions that let people thrive don’t happen by accident,” said Martina Murphy, M.D., senior leader for professional development at the UF Health Cancer Institute. “They’re built, intentionally, through relationships like the ones ONCO-GATOR created. What makes mentorship so powerful is that it gives to both people. The mentee gains confidence and a path forward, and the mentor reconnects with why they chose this work in the first place. That’s how a research community grows stronger and how we invest in the next generation of UF Health Cancer Institute researchers.”
“What makes mentorship so powerful is that it gives to both people.”
Serendipity Zapanta Rinonos, M.D., Ph.D., an assistant professor in the UF Department of Neurosurgery who was mentored by Coy Heldermon, M.D., Ph.D., said the program provided invaluable “physician-scientist pearls” of wisdom.
“It’s one of those priceless mentorship things that you can’t purchase,” she said.
Heldermon gave her practical tips on how to approach networking at conferences and grant preparation that she will carry forward, Rinonos said. During the program, she applied for a V Foundation Scholar Grant and was recently notified that she was selected as the sole nominee from the UF Health Cancer Institute.
“As an early-stage investigator, it’s key,” she said. “To see someone else on the same physician-scientist track and this is a formula that works, it’s another form of affirmation. We plan to continue the conversation.”
For mentor Ali Zarrinpar, M.D., Ph.D., a professor in the UF Department of Surgery, the program offered a way to assess his own career and give back to the next generation.
“It’s nice for the mentor to take someone through the process that you’ve already been through and learned from,” said Zarrinpar, co-leader of the UF Health Cancer Institute’s Cancer AI Working Group. “It’s also nice to be able to sit and think through what has been successful for you as a mentor in your career and maybe even reassess how you want to do things yourself. In general, many of us are in academia because we like teaching and passing on all the things that we’ve received in the academic process. I enjoy working with people.”
The program helped Joshua Dajac, M.D., develop and refine a series of ideas that he has presented to the IIT Think Tank (I2T3), a forum for cancer investigators to get feedback on new investigator-initiated concepts.
“It was nice to have a structured itinerary of things a young investigator would have questions about along the path,” said Dajac, a clinical assistant professor in the Division of Hematology & Oncology in the UF Department of Pediatrics. “Talking with my mentor, the big keys were establishing that foundation, your network of people who can help you and you can talk with and run ideas past. For those getting their feet wet with research and wanting to start clinical trials of their own, it’s very helpful.”
Ultimately, mentorship is about shaping your own independent thinking, said Muhammad Tariq, M.D., a clinical assistant professor in the UF Division of Hematology & Oncology on the Hematologic Malignancy and Cellular Therapy team who was mentored by Nancy Mendenhall, M.D.
“Mentorship is where you share your ideas and people define or help you in refining your ideas, guiding you through the process and sharing the experience,” he said.
The program will continue with a new cohort in January.
Congratulations to our 2025-26 mentor-mentee pairs!
- Ashley Ghiaseddin, M.D., (mentor) and John Ligon, M.D. (mentee)
- Paul Crispen, M.D. (mentor) and Ibrahim Nassour, M.D. (mentee)
- Coy Heldermon, M.D., Ph.D. (mentor) and Serendipity Rinonos, M.D., Ph.D. (mentee)
- Maryam Rahman, M.D. (mentor) and Gahyun Gim, M.D. (mentee)
- Joanne Lagmay, M.D. (mentor) and Joshua Dajac, M.D. (mentee)
- Naykky Singh Ospina, M.D. (mentor) and Monica Demecillo, M.D. (mentee)
- David Iglesias, M.D. (mentor) and Ansh Mehta, M.D. (mentee)
- Nancy Mendenhall, M.D. (mentor) and Muhammad Tariq, M.D. (mentee)
- Lisa Spiguel, M.D. (mentor) and Danielle Cerbon, M.D. (mentee)
- Ali Zarrinpar, M.D. (mentor) and Patrick Underwood (mentee)
