Michelle Silverthorn is the Founder and CEO of Inclusion Nation. Michelle founded Inclusion Nation on the belief that diversity and inclusion needs a new voice for a new generation. A recognized organizational diversity expert, and in-demand diversity speaker, Michelle works with clients in all industries to design spaces centered on courage, belonging, and authenticity. She equips her audiences across the country with the knowledge and skills to finally move forward on diversity and inclusion.
A graduate of Princeton University and the University of Michigan Law School, Michelle practiced for two large law firms in New York and Chicago. She then transitioned into the education field where she trained thousands of professionals - in-person and online - about implicit bias, diversity and inclusion, and millennials in the workplace. She has written numerous articles on those topics, including a well-received op-ed for the Chicago Tribune on implicit bias. She is a TEDx speaker and the author of the forthcoming book, Your Organization is Not a Melting Pot: How to Recruit, Train and Lead a Diverse Workforce.
Michelle previously worked as an arts and entertainment journalist in Trinidad and Tobago, a legal researcher in Puno, Peru and Geneva, Switzerland, and a volunteer teacher in Gaborone, Botswana and Almaty, Kazakhstan. Michelle grew up in the Caribbean and now lives in Chicago with her husband Daniel and their two daughters.
In 2018, Starbucks closed its stores after a manager called the police on two black men waiting at a table. The months that followed brought a rash of incidents of white people calling the police on people of color napping in a college dorm, BBQing in a public park, touring a university campus, and selling water on the side of the road. For many, this is where implicit bias enters.
As a shortcut for our thinking, implicit bias plays a crucial role in how we perceive people who are different, and those first impressions can dramatically affect our perception of another person.
In this program, we'll discuss how many of us have been socialized to be "color-blind" or "identity-blind" when it comes to seeing other people. Using interactive exercises, we witness our own implicit biases at work and see how those biases affect our perceptions of other people. Attendees will get strategies to successfully interrupt implicit bias, and create spaces where we can all see behind the stereotype to the authentic person within.
REGISTRATION AND ADDITIONAL DETAILS: https://cli.corporatelegalleaders.com/upcoming-courses/lecture-2-16-how-...
Part of the series:
TIPPING THE SCALES: TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION, AND EQUITY
CLI's mission is to educate, empower and establish future leaders in the rapidly changing legal ecosystem. We are creating a community-based movement to connect students and employers committed to increasing diversity, inclusion and innovation in the legal industry. The lectures are by leaders in corporate legal operations, talent development and other areas.