Lynn University embraces the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED) initiative, signature pedagogies and the development of scholarly practitioners. In response to the evolution of educational leadership, Lynn University values the need for doctoral candidates to understand the group process and to be able to work within a diverse group with differing strengths to deconstruct problems of practice. The goal is to prepare doctoral candidates to become scholarly practitioners and to learn how to be transformational educational leaders for the 21st century. Centered on the researched interests surrounding the needs of 21st educational leaders, a cohort of 11 Ed.D. students at Lynn University produced a comprehensive literature review and a doctoral informational iBook, concluding with writing two publishable research articles and an executive summary as part of their Dissertation in Practice (DiP). A key process in supporting the doctoral candidates is the role of the mentor and critical friends through the process of the DiP. This is even more vital when a group chooses to embark on a shared DiP. Critical friends (Reardon & Shakeshaft, 2013) help guide the process, model leadership skills and provide feedback for those pursuing this terminal leadership degree. The relationships developed during this process inspire and encourage life-long collaboration. Exploring the role of the mentor and mentee through the non-traditional dissertation along with doctoral coursework provides a framework for rethinking best practices in higher education Ed.D. programs. Through the experiences during the doctoral coursework and dissertation process, mentees return what is learned from their mentors and critical friends to a variety of settings. The purpose of this action research study is to focus on the mentor-mentee relationships through a CPED DiP (Perry, 2012) at Lynn University. Three research questions represented the focal point of the study: (1) What is the mentor-mentee relationship between the dissertation chair and doctoral candidates in a group DiP at Lynn University? (2) What is the mentor-mentee relationship between the critical friends and the doctoral candidates in a group DiP at Lynn University? and (3) How can the mentor relationships established during an Ed.D. program inspire doctoral candidates to mentor future doctoral students at Lynn University?