Making Sense of Implicit Bias

Nikki McGruder
Trainer / Facilitator
Nikki McGruder, LLC

If you have a brain, you have a bias! Is that surprising to you? Let’s make sense of this concept while we understand how our biases shape our interactions with others. In this session, we will also talk through tangible ways to mitigate our biases.

Key Take-A-Ways:

Implicit Bias impacts us all

Unchecked biases can cause harm even when that was not the intent

Our biases can be mitigated

More about Nikki:

Nikki serves as the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for MU Health Care, an academic health system based in Columbia, Missouri. In this role, Nikki leads MU Health Care’s diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts across its extensive network of hospitals and clinics.

Prior to joining MU Health Care, Nikki led the Inclusive Impact Institute as its first Director and gave the community its first comprehensive organization dedicated to innovation, strategy, and solutions to issues of diversity, inclusion, and engagements.  Previously, Nikki managed the regional office of the Diversity Awareness Partnership.

Over the course of five years, 2015-2020, Nikki has collaborated with approximately 5,000 community members who have dedicated their time and resources to inclusive events, transformative dialogues, and intensive trainings.

In January 2018, Nikki, in partnership with several key Boone County business and community leaders, launched Inclusive Excellence Boone County.  This two-pronged endeavor was developed to address companies’ implementation of the five dimensions of the Inclusive Excellence Framework as well as create immersive experiences to help community members identify and mitigate their personal biases.

Nikki’s professional experience includes working with a leading recruitment process outsourcing firm, Cielo.  At the firm, Nikki recruited and hired top candidates for technology, pharmaceutical, and finance positions. Nikki was employed at Edward Jones Investments for more than a decade.

Nikki earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business from Columbia College in Columbia, MO, and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) and Master of Arts in Human Resources Development from Webster University in St. Louis, MO.

Social Distancing Guidelines that will be followed:

We will be set for rounds of 6 (using 72″ tables), per the CDC guidelines.  They have 3 sections of the grand ballroom reserved for us to spread out. We will have hand sanitizer available along with disposable masks for those that forget to bring their own.

The Professional Women’s Alliance is an organization of women supporting one another for personal and professional development.  We strive to keep the annual membership cost affordable to encourage participation.  We also believe in “try it before you buy it” which is the reason we offer potential members the opportunity to attend two events before deciding to join.