ReBUILDetroit hosts workshop on combating implicit bias April 6
Dr. Jahzara D. E. Mayes and Dr. Nadia Saadat will present the interactive workshop, “Now that you know what implicit bias is, what are you going to do about it?” on Tuesday, April 6, from 12:30 to 2:00 p.m.
This virtual event is sponsored by ReBUILDetroit, which is part of a consortium comprised of the University of Detroit Mercy and Wayne State University with HFC serving as its pipeline partner. Please register by Friday, April 2. We recommend that participants take an implicit bias assessment prior to the workshop. Assessment details and a ZOOM link to the workshop will be provided to the participants upon registering.
This interactive workshop will cover the impact of implicit bias and how to combat bias and stereotyping. There will be a brief overview of implicit bias; however, this workshop will be focused on actions and activities to undertake in order to manage the automatic responses that implicit bias engages.
About the presenters
Dr. Jahzara D. E. Mayes earned her bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She later went on to earn her master’s degree in the humanities, her graduate certificate in college teaching, and her doctoral degree in educational leadership with a focus in higher education – all from Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant. She also earned her graduate certificate in higher education administration from Oakland University in Rochester.
Currently, Mayes is engaged in the work of diversity, equity, inclusion, and pedagogical professional development activities for higher education with ReBUILDetroit, an organization she has been involved with since 2016. Sshe coordinates several learning communities with the aim of infusing institutional culture with sustainable curricular and pedagogical strategies to enhance the teaching and learning of a multicultural student body. She also hosts STEM-related community outreach events.
Dr. Nadia Saadat has a longstanding commitment to academia. She earned her doctorate in medicine from Dow Medical College in Karachi, Pakistan. In the United States, she earned her master’s degree in nutrition and her Ph.D. in cancer biology – both from Wayne State. During her graduate work, Saadat received the Graduate Professional Scholarship. While working on her Ph.D., she was awarded both the Parent Family Endowed Fellowship and the Golden Key Research Grant.
Saadat has taught at the undergraduate and graduate levels at Wayne State. As a postdoctoral researcher, she worked as a lead researcher, training doctoral, graduate, and undergraduate students at Wayne State. She has also served as the chair of the Wayne State University Postdoctoral Association.
She was one of the three recipients of the ReBUILDetroit postdoctoral fellowship, which provided her the opportunity to be trained as a culturally aware mentor. She is involved in pedagogical research activities with the ReBUILDetroit Online Learning Community. Her research interests include investigating the molecular mechanisms of chronic diseases and bio-marker discovery for early diagnosis.
In her current research projects, she is using an integrated analysis of metabolomics and transcriptomics/functional genomics to investigate the metabolic and gene pathways to identify key players of pathogenesis and their effects on metabolism.Saadat is an active volunteer in increasing the awareness of nutrition, health, and management of chronic diseases in the community through public seminar presentations.
For questions or more information, contact Mayes at otoojm@udmercy.edu.