From a reader named Raymond DeCampo comes this interesting, poignant bleg. (Read up on blegs here; send your own blegs here; and see some other new Freakonomics-coined words here.)
My wife and I recently undertook the task of securing our son’s future in the event we would not be there to secure it for him.
In the process I realized that while our choices for guardians were good people and good parents themselves, they did not share the same value of education which we share. We soon realized that while we had appointed godparents to watch over his moral development, we would feel better if an analogous figure was watching over his academic development. Thus my wife’s sister became his academic “godmother.” The bleg is: what should we call her?
and 
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As I recall, that position is called a thesis advisor.
ummm…aunty
Matron of Education.
EdMom and GradDad
goducator?
Not sure what’s wrong with standard words for this, like teacher, adviser ( academic or otherwise ), counselor, mentor, etc.
Upta-guru perhaps, not *the* teacher but a teacher if you want to go crazy.
Godtutor.
Hopefully your wife’s sister won’t ask why she’s good enough to be the guardian of your child’s educational development but not good enough to be the guardian of your child’s moral development