Erasing Institutional Bias: How to Create Systemic Change for Organizational Inclusion

All humans have bias, and as a result, so do the institutions we build. Internationally sought after diversity consultant Tiffany Jana offers concrete ways for anyone to work against institutional bias no matter what their position is in an organization.

While it is easy to identify intentionally built systems of oppression like Jim Crow or the paralysis caused by the glass ceiling for women in the workplace, confronting systems that perpetuate subtle, unconscious bias is much harder. Erasing Institutional Bias will help people tackle structural bias regardless of their positional power. Eliminating systemic bias can seem an insurmountable task from the vantage point of an ordinary individual, yet Jana and Mejias empower readers to recognize that each of us has the ability to affect systemic bias through a deliberate, coordinated effort. Institutional bias afflicts all industries --including business, education, health care, government, tech, the arts, nonprofits, and finance and banking. Among the types of institutional bias addressed are hiring bias, gender bias, racial bias, occupational bias, and customer bias. Jana and Mejias focus their attention on bias in the workplace and give readers practices and activities to create organizational trust to challenge these implicit biases. Erasing Institutional Bias will help people recognize that each of us has the power to affect systemic bias. Each of us can evaluate our own current role in perpetuating systemic bias and define our new role in breaking down systemic bias.

About the Authors

Tiffany Jana is the founder of the TMI Portfolio of companies, a suite of interconnected diversity and inclusion focused businesses. TMI Consulting, a TMI Portfolio company, is a Certified Benefit Corporation and earned the 2016 Best for the World Honor from the nonprofit B Lab that certifies B Corps worldwide. Tiffany Jana is the co-author of "Overcoming Bias: Building Authentic Relationships across Differences". Dr. Jana is featured in "The B Corp Handbook" by Ryan Honeyman, and co-authored the 2nd edition in 2018. Dr. Jana co-authored "Erasing Institutional Bias: How to Create Systemic Change for Organizational Inclusion" in 2017. She spoke on the TEDx stage on the Power of Privilege. Tiffany was named a Top 100 Leadership Speaker for 2018 by Inc.com. She earned the 2017 Enterprising Women of the Year Award from Enterprising Women Magazine.

Originally from Memphis, Tennessee, Ashley Diaz Mejias began regularly challenging systemic bias while working as the educational director for a small nonprofit after graduating from college. Drawing on both her research and pastoral experience in men and women's correctional settings, Ashley has written for blogs and led curricula for institutional and congregational conversations on race, systemic bias, and mass incarceration and is currently a candidate for ordination in the Presbyterian Church, USA. When she isn't writing, she is either working with an amazing group of folks to grow the Richmond Community Bail Fund or she is pastoring at the Lord Jesus Korean Presbyterian Church. She earned her MDiv from Union Presbyterian Seminary in 2016, her MA from the University of Virginia in 2006, and her BA from Rhodes College in 2001. Ashley now lives with her husband and three young daughters in the East End of Richmond, Virginia.

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