Academic mentoring has taken its rightful place alongside teaching for supporting student success. However, mentorship in higher education is complex, contextual, and laborious, as well as under-researched and not consistently recognized. Mentoring by design-focused on developmental learning that can empower and transform participants--embeds perspectives, models or theories, and evidence-supported practices/strategies. Reflection on theory-informed practice can draw lessons for mentoring PhD/EdD learners and improving doctoral environments. In this essay, a faculty mentor's goal is to describe her philosophical approach to doctoral mentoring relative to work context, perspectives, models, application, outcomes, critical evaluation, and reflective critique. Literature on mentoring in higher education is incorporated from the scholarship of teaching and learning. The paper ends with guidance for post-pandemic doctoral mentoring.