This social equity-focused U-LINK project seeks to address the role of systemic discriminatory bias in the data life cycle across the industries and fields. Indeed, we see bias in the data life cycle as a cross-cutting issue for both Black Lives Matters movements and the COVID-19 pandemic: Systemic inequities that live in the generation of big data and the stories told with big data both perpetuate and reveal the disparate health and life outcomes for women and communities of color. These inequities transcend discipline and are visible across major social issues such as disease and healthcare access, policing, race-related stress, and exposure to pollution.
Despite a growing awareness of the lack of representation in large-scale datasets and a growing commitment for data science fields to address issues of data ethics, no standard educational approach to address discriminatory bias exists across the data professional fields. Consequently, we propose to design and offer community-based, participant-centered, anti-bias training in order to raise awareness of and address implicit and explicit racial and intersectional bias across the data lifecycle and how it relates to public health. Our decision to focus on the public health context represents a targeted, community-based response to the lack of inclusion and equity in the data life cycle and the current socio-political climate. This interdisciplinary, anti-bias training intervention will target students (advanced undergraduates and graduates) and professionals across disciplines. The goal will be to develop ambassadors who can then educate and engage in anti-bias efforts in their respective professional contexts.
Project Members:
Jennifer Kahn,
Assistant Professor,
Applied Learning Sciences and STEM Education Programs,
Department of Teaching and Learning,
University of Miami.
Debbiesiu Lee,
Associate Professor,
Counseling/ Counseling Psychology Programs,
Department of Educational and Psychological Studies,
University of Miami.
Ching-Hua Chuan,
Research Associate Professor,
Interactive Media at the University of Miami,
School of Communication.
Patricia Jones, MD,
Assistant Professor of Medicine (Hepatology),
Miller School of Medicine,
University of Miami.
