Hispanic women in leadership are vastly understudied and little is known as to what factors influence their leadership aspirations and ultimately their career advancement. Mentoring has been found to have a positive influence on women’s perceptions of career advancement and the gender of the mentor plays a role (Tharenou, 2005). The purpose of this study was to examine how career-related mentoring influences the protegee’s career advancement and how the gender of the mentor may change that relationship. Furthermore, the relationship between psychosocial (emotional) support and the protegee’s leadership aspirations were examined, as well as the role of the mentor’s gender and ethnicity. In addition, negative factors, such as barriers to obtain a mentor and work family conflict, were also examined to determine how they may affect their leadership aspirations. Last, we also examined if social support moderates the relationship between work family conflict and leadership aspirations. The results indicated that career-related mentoring is positively related to career advancement and is moderated by the mentor’s gender. However, the relationship between psychosocial mentoring and leadership aspiration is positive, but not moderated by the mentor’s gender or ethnicity. It was found that work family conflict is negatively related to leadership aspirations, but not moderated by social support. A mixed method approach was used and the themes found in the qualitative data aligned with the quantitative findings. Both the theoretical and practical implications of the results for Hispanic women’s career aspirations and advanced are discussed

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One of the challenges facing community colleges in the United States is the looming retirements of executive/senior-level leadership, particularly the president, on a wide scale. This study explored the career aspirations of executive-level leaders within the community college using Social Cognitive Career Theory as the conceptual framework. Within the context of a three-person collaborative dissertation project, a mixed methods case study approach was utilized for the research design. It first examined the perceived and preferred organizational culture(s) by administering the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI). Building upon results of the OCAI, interviews with executive-level leaders explored how personal and institutional factors impact their aspirations of to ascend to the community college presidency. The findings of the research indicate that affecting change, being asked, and the desire to help are personal factors of influence that motivate executive-level leaders to seek the role of community college president. On the other hand, age, family, and potential work-life imbalance might dissuade executive-level leaders from seeking this role. The study reveals that organizational culture (the “culture of caring”) and leadership development are positive factors of institutional influence. Institutional factors that dissuade executive-level leaders from seeking the community college presidency are politics, the state of the institution being led, and the unknown. This study advances the field of educational leadership in that a number of personal and institutional factors are adduced that influence the aspirations of executive-level leaders to progress to the community college presidency. The findings identify the need for research across multiple institutions and the need to expand Social Cognitive Career Theory to include personal-cognitive barriers of race and gender.