Social Justice Fieldwork Paper

Rainbow Educators: Implicit Bias Workshop

Leslie Martinez

HCIN 548: Seminar

Hahn School of Nursing: University of San Diego

Dr. Boone

December 3, 2022
 The Rainbow Educators (REs) are a group of students, staff, faculty, and alumni/ae who

create and present workshops at the University of San Diego. In the past, workshops have been

offered to residence halls, athletic teams, staff and faculty groups, Greek organizations, and

student clubs. The workshops are interactive and dynamic; they include videos, role-plays,

visualizations, Q&A, and personal stories. REs are committed to holding themselves and others

accountable for working against all forms of oppression. We arrive at our workshops as

co-learners.

The purpose of the Rainbow Educator program is to build awareness, educate, and

engage the USD community around identities such as sexual orientation, gender, race, ethnicity,

and class, while promoting the inclusion and visibility of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual,

Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ+) communities. Rainbow Educators are committed to holding

themselves and others accountable for working against all forms of oppression. Thus, I

arranged one Rainbow Educator presentation regarding Implicit Bias to Executive Assistants in

the Hahn School of Nursing. This will help ensure staff and administrators are addressing

attitudes, stereotypes, and associations that we hold outside of our conscious awareness.

One of the key components to this training is providing a space for all participants to feel

safe and comfortable. The topics discussed affect everyone in the room differently, thus it is

crucial to reinforce the importance of talking about these issues as if someone in the room is

directly affected by them. During the training I noticed hesitance from the participants to share

their personal experiences or views with the larger group, so smaller breakout sessions with

groups of 2-3 were created. This allowed others to feel more comfortable to express their

personal experiences, understanding of the material and unpack the topics they were unsure of.

At the end of the session I found that there was a gap in knowledge and reevaluated the ways I

could improve the follow-up session to better cater to the audience.