We All May Be Biased: Understanding the Impact of Unconscious Bias

Speaker Bio

MELISSA SINGH currently teaches field seminar and Virtual Field Practicum at the USC School of Social Work. She is part of the Community, Organization, and Business Innovation department and is on the Southeast field team. Singh is currently the co-director of the COBI Fellows Program in Social Innovation.

She has been teaching in a university setting since 1999 and has earned both a Master of Health Administration and a Master of Social Work. Singh’s certifications include advanced certified hospice and palliative social worker, field traumatologist, marriage and family therapy, and health care information systems, to name a few. She also has more than five years of field instruction experience.

In addition to teaching, Singh has held positions as a social worker and community liaison at Vitas Innovative Hospice Care in Orlando, Florida, served as a medical social worker at various home health care agencies and facilitated psychosocial groups at a nonprofit agency. She currently works as a crisis care and disaster relief responder for Crisis Care Network. She sits on the advisory board of the Farmworker Jobs and Education Program and is vice chair of her local National Association of Social Workers unit. Singh also has experience in the military setting, completing in-home assessments for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs caregivers program.

Connect with the speaker through her website:  

isocialwork.org

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Workshop Description

As we continue to fight the –isms in America subtle discrimination still exists. The Harvard race Implicit Association Test (IAT) indicates that 75% of test takers demonstrate an implicit preference even the bias is unacknowledged. The presenter will highlight ways in which unconscious bias impacts thoughts, feelings and behaviors. Participants will increase awareness of unconscious bias, disrupt their views on cultural competence and understand how unconscious bias impacts America.

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