Identifying and Addressing Unconscious Bias: Your Freudian Slip is Showing Again

About this event

May 12, 2016 | 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.

Continental Breakfast & Networking at 8:00, Presentation at 8:30

Ecotrust Conference Center, 2nd Floor | 721 NW 9th Avenue | Portland, OR 97209

Member Pass Eligible, $25 NAO Members, $50 Nonmembers

Presenters
April Lewis & Carol French, Consultants, Figure 8 Consulting

When unconscious bias helps us react quickly to possible danger, it can help us stay safe in a sometimes uncertain world. But what if that same hidden, automatic mechanism in others prevents you from getting a job interview or a promotion, receiving a positive performance review, or getting a life-saving medical procedure? Or what if that same mechanism interferes with your ability to live up to your own values?

Even those of us who are consciously committed to equality and who strive to behave without prejudice can still hold negative biases and stereotypes deep within our subconscious selves, biases that make us uncomfortable on a conscious level – if we become aware of them.

Participants will:

• Investigate the mechanisms and unintended impact of unconscious bias;
• Examine the brain physiology of inclusion;
• Examine our unique cultural identity as it defines our world view;
• Understand Curiosity and Empathy as the antidotes to implicit bias.

About the Presenters

April Lewis & Carol French April Lewis’s 15 years of experience in organizational development, diversity, and cultural competency has given her a proven track record as a trainer, organizational consultant, and curriculum development specialist with diverse teams and groups in a variety of organizational settings. Her master’s degree in public administration from Lewis and Clark College provided her with the foundation for the work she does, but her passion is more a result of her experiences and who she is, beginning when she worked with people with disabilities when she was in high school. At the same time that she strives for authenticity in all of her relationships, April is committed to having fun whenever possible, which is reflected in her dynamic, unique, and completely engaging style, whether she is facilitating groups, doing diversity education, training others to be trainers, or teaching golf to inner city kids. April is at her most creative when she brings all of these qualities together to help clients respond to organizational challenges.

Carol French brings a broad range of experience to Figure 8. Carol has a BA in English and theater and an MA in psychology from Lewis and Clark College. Her years in the classroom teaching English, drama, and communication provided the foundation for her skill at curriculum development, her innate ability to connect with her audience, and her commitment to focus on the needs of those in her classes. What began as a way to challenge her fear of heights led Carol to do extensive training on the use of ropes courses, games, initiatives, and experiential activities as a way of augmenting the training that she does. This contributed to the training philosophy that is one of the guiding principles of Figure 8 Consulting, that the best training is interactive. Carol helped launch the diversity initiative for the Evergreen School District in Vancouver, WA, and her work with immigrant families in that area provided her with a passion for working with people from a variety of cultural backgrounds.