Allyship-In-Action: The Power of Gender Collaboration: A Visiting Expert Series event as part of Mentor Canada's Community of Practice

Join us for a critical discussion in our Community of Practice (CoP) Visiting Expert Series as we welcome Dr. David Smith and Dr. Brad Johnson.

About the Session

Based on their research and books, Athena Rising, Good Guys, and Fair Share, Brad and David make the case for intentional male allyship and gender collaboration to promote gender-fair education and workplaces. Using social science evidence, they explore (and normalize) the possible challenges of cross-gender professional relationships. Using evidence, some humor, and organizational best practices, they provide the “how-to” for becoming intentional, inclusive allies, leveraging interpersonal relationships, public advocacy, and workplace partnership to create a sustainable, inclusive, and more successful workforce and society. They show how ally tactics map to any underrepresented group and use examples touching on women with intersectional identities. In this session, they will emphasize strategies for men to lean into gender-inclusive developmental relationships (e.g., mentoring and sponsoring) with an emphasis on informal mentor-of-the-moment interactions. 

Meet the Experts

David Smith, PhD, is co-author of the book Fair Share: How Men and Women Can Create a More Equitable Workplace Together, a Professor, and Co-Director of the Gender & Work Initiative at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School. A former Navy pilot, Dr. Smith led diverse organizations of women and men, culminating in command of a squadron in combat, and flew more than 3,000 hours over 30 years, including combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. As a sociologist, his research focuses on gender, work, and family issues, including allyship and inclusive leadership, mental load, gender bias in performance evaluations, and dual-career families. He is the co-author of the books Good Guys: How Men Can Be Better Allies for Women in the Workplace and Athena Rising: How and Why Men Should Mentor Women, and numerous journal articles and book chapters focused on gender and the workplace. 

W. Brad Johnson, PhD, is Professor Emeritus of leadership, ethics, and law at the U. S. Naval Academy. A clinical psychologist, he was a commissioned officer in the Navy’s Medical Service Corps, serving at Bethesda Naval Hospital and the Medical Clinic at Pearl Harbor, where he was the division head for psychology. For 20 years, he was also a clinical faculty associate at Johns Hopkins University, where he was awarded the annual Faculty Teaching Excellence Award. He is an award-winning mentor with distinguished mentor awards from the National Institutes of Health and the American Psychological Association. He is also a fellow of the American Psychological Association. He has served as chair of the American Psychological Association’s Ethics Committee and as president of the Society for Military Psychology. Dr. Johnson is the author of more than 140 journal articles and book chapters—many on the topic of mentoring—and 14 books in the areas of mentoring, gender in the workplace, and professional ethics. Recent books include: Fair Share: How Men and Women Can Create a More Equitable Workplace Together (2026, with David Smith); Good Guys: How Men Can Become Better Allies for Women in the Workplace (2020, with David Smith); On Being a Mentor: A Guide for Higher Education Faculty (3rd Ed.) (2025, with Kimberly Griffin); The Elements of Mentoring (3rd Ed.) (2018, with Charles Ridley); and Athena Rising: How and Why Men Should Mentor Women (2016, with David Smith). He speaks around the globe on the topics of mentorship, gender-fair workplaces, and inclusive leadership.