Tony Voters Will Be Required to Complete Unconscious Bias Training Course

BroadwayWorld has learned that Tony voters will be required to complete unconscious bias training beginning this season. Members of the Tony Awards voting committee will take a free, online training session, led by inclusion strategist Vernā Myers, which will teach them how to identify unconscious or implicit bias in their decision-making processes and how to correct it.

The Exploring Unconscious Bias with Vernā Myers course introduces the concept of unconscious bias and addresses the impact it has on building and retaining a diverse and inclusive workplace where people of all backgrounds can thrive. Throughout the learning session, participants will be asked to look inward to better understand some of their own unconscious biases and learn to recognize and interrupt bias. The video has 18 short chapters that build upon one another.

Several members of the committee may have already taken a similar course through affiliated organizations such as the Broadway League, American Theatre Wing and Actors' Equity. They will not need to take the course, as they have already completed the requirement.

Voters will complete the training, and self-attest that it has been completed before March 1. The Tony Award voting period has yet to be announced for the 2022 ceremony.

A Harvard-trained lawyer and founder of The Vernā Myers Company, Vernā is the VP, Inclusion Strategy at Netflix where she leads her team in devising and implementing strategies that integrate cultural diversity, inclusion and equity into all aspects of Netflix's operations worldwide.

Vernā is the author of the best-selling books: Moving Diversity Forward: How to Go From Well-Meaning to Well-Doing and What If I Say the Wrong Thing? 25 Habits for Culturally Effective People. Her inspiring TED talk, "How to Overcome Our Biases? Walk Boldly Toward Them," offers three ways any person can become an active participant in countering bias in themselves and in others to create a more just world.

For the last two decades, Vernā and The Vernā Myers Company have helped organizations eradicate barriers based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation and other differences with the aim of establishing a new, more productive and just status quo. As Vernā puts it, Diversity is being invited to the party. Inclusion is being asked to dance.

Learn more at https://www.vernamyers.com/.