"Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced."
- James Baldwin
We invite you to join us for a 6-week Implicit Bias Learning Circle consisting of both individual and group work. Implicit biases are attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner. Implicit biases develop at an early age through social conditioning. Having an implicit bias towards a particular group can determine how you treat an individual from that group.
Learning Experience Design:
This learning experience is designed to help you personally explore implicit bias, particularly as it relates to race and racism. We will work together to identify and understand implicit bias. Each week you will have reading and reflection activities to accomplish and to participate in a virtual 90-minute learning circle. We anticipate that the course will require about 3 hours per week.
Learning circles will meet virtually at 1:00 pm until 2:30 pm on Wednesdays on the following days:
- January 6, 2021
- January 13, 2021
- January 20, 2021
- January 27, 2021
- February 3, 2021
- February 10, 2021
We will be using email, an online learning platform, and Zoom for this learning experience. We hope that you will join us!
Facilitators:
- Irina Meza - Chief of Staff, Mission Capital (She/Her/Hers/Ella, and Latina)
- Karl Nichols - Senior Consultant, Leadership & Management, Nichols & Associates (He/ Him/ His, and African American)
- Reyda Taylor - Senior Consultant, Data & Research, Mission Capital (She/Her/Hers, and White)
Course Curriculum
Learn more about your facilitators:
IRINA MEZA (She/Her/Hers/Ella, and Chicana/ Latina)
Irina is ardent about advancing race equity, diversity and belonging and throughout her professional career has worked to thread equity & inclusion into team culture. In her role at Mission Capital, Irina has been a core leader in our internal equity work and capacity building with staff, leads the Mission Capital Inclusion Council, and co-developed & delivered our internal Implicit Bias workshop. Irina is also a Knowing Who You Are facilitator, a research-based training curriculum designed to raise awareness about the importance developing a healthy sense of racial and ethnic identity (REI).
Prior to her time at Mission Capital, , Irina served as the Deputy Regional Director at the Texas Department of Family & Protective Services where she oversaw executive and administrative HR operations for over 800 employees/26 offices. Throughout her career, Irina has demonstrated her commitment to developing and nurturing staff talent in her Employee Relations and multiple Leadership/Management roles. Irina has experience providing leadership mapping, building & facilitating signature leadership programs, and providing Myers-Briggs workshops to organizations, private businesses and entrepreneurs. Irina also provided e-coaching to the National Association of Professional Women (NAPW) and was selected as one of seven coaches to participate on a Coaching Roundtable to provide guidance to the NAPW.
Irina holds a Master of Public Administration (emphasis on nonprofit management) and a SHRM-SCP certification (Society for Human Resource Management – Senior Certified Professional).
KARL NICHOLS (He/Him/His, and African American)
Mr. Nichols’ entire life work and community involvement have been intricately centered around the issues of race, diversity, inclusion, and equity. Since moving to Austin in 2004, he has been actively engaged in several community efforts, trainings, and discussions to move racial justice and equity to new heights. In 2017, he was appointed to serve on Austin Community College’s (ACC) Department of Equity and Inclusion Strategic Executive Committee that conducted a comprehensive equity audit and strategic planning process for the university. Those efforts awarded him the “Equity Champion” Award from ACC. Karl has also participated in several equity and anti-racism trainings and offerings such as: Courageous Conversations – Beyond Diversity by the Pacific Educational Group, Micromessaging Academy by National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity, and numerous local and national equity conferences. He currently serves as Co-Chair for Racial Equity Taskforce at E3 Alliance, a data-driven education collaborative in Austin, which is charged with building an internal equity framework to advance the educational system in Central Texas. In addition, Karl serves on the Cityview Bible Racial Diversity Taskforce at his local church that will lead the congregation in courageous conversations about race and equity.
Karl Nichols is an experienced management professional with a proven record of leadership in the non-profit sector with over twenty years of experience in the areas of education, administrative leadership, organizational partnerships, fund development, and civic engagement. In the last seven years, Karl Nichols has distinguished himself as a seasoned fundraiser with successful achievements in major gifts, annual development planning, corporate giving, special events, and large private and public foundations support.
Karl completed both a Bachelor of Arts with a concentration in Africology in 1998 and a Masters of Business Administration in 2002 from the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee. Most recently, he received a Certificate in Effective Fundraising from Austin Community College and the nationally recognized Certified Fundraising Professional Certificate (CFRE) credential in 2019.
REYDA TAYLOR (She/Her/Hers, and White)
Reyda is passionate about making knowledge production more inclusive and accessible. In her role at Mission Capital, Reyda takes a systems entrepreneur approach to building creative collaborations that address data alignment and access challenges in the local social and public sectors. She leads our data and evaluation consulting practice area, which is anchored in empowerment and participatory approaches. Reyda also serves on Mission Capital’s Inclusion Council and co-developed and delivered Mission Capital’s Implicit Bias workshop.
Reyda has been a practicing researcher since 2010 and got her professional start as the Research and Evaluation Specialist at the Girl Scouts of Citrus in Orlando, FL. Reyda moved to Austin in 2011 to work for Shore Research, conducting research and evaluation in the non-profit and education sectors. In 2013, Reyda delved fully into user experience research—building an independent consulting business, PKE Insights, which provided generative and evaluative strategic and user experience research in the technology sector. In 2018, Reyda joined the Mission Capital team to build out a research and evaluation consulting practice area.
Reyda focuses much of her spare time on efforts to make applied research more accessible and equitable. Reyda co-founded and served as the founding executive director (2018-2020) for Capacity Catalyst, an organization with a strategic focus on addressing disproportionate representation and inequitable access in the research workforce. Reyda also co-founded and co-organizes the Texas Applied Anthropology Summit, a biannual statewide conference committed to bridging the gap between applied and academic anthropology.
Reyda completed a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Florida in 2010 and completed a BA in Psychology from Ouachita Baptist University in 2004.