Privilege and Implicit Biases in the Nutrition Profession

This product is free for AAPI and PHCN members.

This webinar was presented live on April 21, 2022.

Throughout the last 100 years, diet recommendations and the nutrition profession reflect privilege and systemic bias, which continues to blame, subjugate, and marginalize people of color (especially Asian Americans) and negatively impact public health goals and outcomes.

In this session, Dr. Burt will share the history of the profession and use the Mediterranean Diet and Monosodium Glutamate recommendations as primary examples of covert bias. To achieve health equity, we must identify the myriad forms of bias impacting the profession, understand the visible and invisible ways different persons are impacted by bias, and take specific actions to create a more equitable health and food system.

Professor Siew Sun Wong will present her 28 years of journey in the U.S. as an English as Second Language (ESL) student and later a minority faculty in the field of nutrition. Through her personal stories from experiencing implicit biases in Dietetics education, classroom discrimination, and promotion and tenure derision, she will share seven lessons learnt as a survival guide for Asian immigrants. Using the Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experience in Research (CIMER) curriculum, attendees will get to share their stories, their "I like, I wish, I wonder" and best practices. The session will conclude with a celebration of transformation.

CPEU: 1.5
CPE Level: 2
Performance Indicators: 1.7.3, 1.7.1, 4.2.2

Learning Objectives

1. Define privilege and explain the relationship between privilege, bias, and the dietetics profession.
2. Describe how covert bias in the nutrition/dietetics profession impacts practice.
3. Identify at least 2 tools and/or techniques to improve self-awareness and foster inclusion in academic and practice settings.
4. Respond to implicit biases mindfully and reflect on one's own experience in order to provide more socially and culturally humble care.

Speakers

Kate Burt, PhD, RDN

Kate Gardner Burt, PhD, RDN is an assistant professor, DPD Director, and Undergraduate Program Director of the Dietetics, Foods, and Nutrition Program at Lehman College, City University of New York. She teaches courses in cultural humility and foodways and in professional practice. Dr. Burt's research explores how systemic racial bias and the normativity of whiteness impact the dietetics profession and dietary recommendations. Dr. Burt received her BS in film and television from Boston University and her MS in exercise physiology and nutrition, RD and PhD in food and nutrition policy from Teachers College, Columbia University.

Siew Sun Wong, PhD, MS

Dr. Siew Sun Wong is Professor of Nutrition, Extension Specialist, and Endowed Interim Director of the Moore Family Center at Oregon State University. She received her MS and PhD degrees in Nutrition and Food Sciences from Utah State University, concentrating in epidemiology and community nutrition. Her expertise is nutrition education for behavior change, and dietary assessments with application of digital technology. She has over 20 years of multistate and multidisciplinary experience with $9M funded projects. She chaired the SNEB DigiTech Division and the Division of International Nutrition Education. Since 2019, she became a USDA Impact Collaborative innovation coach to help multidisciplinary teams co-create breakthrough together.

Being born and raised in Malaysia, the multiracial interactions naturally shape her cultural values and awareness of conflicts and harmony. Diversity, inclusion and equity are natural ways of living. Because Malaysians grow up speaking multiple languages simultaneously, English as Second Language (ESL) is hardly an outlier. However, in the U.S., she was discriminated as an ESL student and a minority faculty woman of color. In Oct 2021, she co-presented in FNCE® about "Building bridges, overcoming biases communicating effectively". Outside of work, she recharges by being in nature, playing the piano, violin, singing or composing, and cooking for loved ones.