Beronda Montgomery taught and mentored undergraduates through postdocs as a professor of biochemistry at Michigan State University (MSU) for 18 years. In recent years, she moved to Grinnell College as Dean of the College and leads campus-wide mentorship and ecosystem development. In addition to having mentored more than 75 students in her lab, Beronda also contributed to university-wide mentoring efforts as Assistant Provost at MSU. She contributed to mentoring more than 50 graduate students as chair of the Watkins Program and hundreds of undergrads in a professional development fellowship, both for the American Society for Microbiology (ASM). In addition to direct mentoring, teaching, and outreach, she presents mentoring workshops at institutions and conferences and publishes on growth-based mentoring in numerous articles and her book, Lessons from Plants. Her mentoring scholarship focuses on environmental stewardship, and growth- and equity-promoting mentoring. Beronda has an A.B. in biology from Washington University, an M.S. in biology from the University of Central Arkansas, and a Ph.D. in plant biology from the University of California, Davis. She is a fellow in the American Academy of Microbiology, American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB), American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Beronda was Mentoring Keynote Lecturer for the American Society for Cell Biology in 2021 and an Honorary Diversity Lecturer for ASM in 2022, for noted mentoring contributions. She received the triennial Adolph E. Gude, Jr. award from the ASPB for work in equity-engaged mentorship and use of plant biology knowledge to impart growth-based metaphors in mentoring, equity, and engagement.