The SOM ODI engaged the services of external consultant Lenora Billings-Harris to provide implicit bias educational sessions for more than eighty key members of UAB Medicine leadership on August 15, 2018.  Involving leaders from a wide range of areas, this initiative was launched as a follow-up to implicit bias training held in August, 2017. 

The session was entitled: Maximizing the Power of Inclusion, Part II.  All participants from the earlier session (in August 2017) were invited to attend Part II. 

Participants engaged in an interactive lecture, as well as in role-playing exercises to provide practical tools for combatting bias when it occurs. The intention of the initiative was to be practical, meaningful, and actionable.

Lenora Billings-Harris of Ubuntu Global has trained business and nonprofit leaders, as well as educators, health system professionals, and politicians, in numerous topics related to diversity and inclusion around the world. Decades of hands-on experience has helped her isolate the most effective tools for engaging and addressing bias without creating new sources of conflict or isolation. She taught workshop participants her S.T.O.P. technique, which empowers individuals who are the target of bias, or who witness bias, to speak about their experiences and perceptions effectively without assigning blame or increasing hostility.

Billings-Harris also serves as a consultant to the UAB School of Medicine Office for Diversity and Inclusion in the development of the Toolkit for a Healthy Environment, “The Common Thread.”

“I’m pleased that we were able to create a meaningful educational experience to equip leaders to deal with bias in all its forms,” said Mona Fouad, MD, MPH, Senior Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion. “Bias is a human characteristic, and something that impacts all of us in subtle ways. Lenora’s tools are helpful and timely.”