Understanding Microaggressions and How to Respond
Aug 27, 2020
Dr. Alison Hall Birch, UTA Assistant Professor
Understanding Microaggressions and How to Respond

Alison V. Hall (Birch) is an Assistant Professor and Fellow of the Goolsby-Alcon Endowed Chair in the College of Business at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA). Prior to joining the faculty at UTA, she was the Glover Business Leadership Assistant Professor at Agnes Scott College. She earned her Ph.D. in Business Administration from the A. B. Freeman School of Business at Tulane. Alison has taught at the graduate and undergraduate levels. Her courses have included: Leading and Motivating in a Culturally Diverse World, Leadership and Teams, Team Management, Managing the Enterprise, Diversity in Organizations, and Leadership in Organizations, among others.

Her primary research interests are stigma-based bias, diversity management, and leadership. Thematically, her research considers how surface-level diversity markers (e.g., race, gender, class, etc.) interact with the social world to act as barriers to, or facilitators of, individuals’ experiences and advancement in both the workplace and society. She is especially interested in the contextual factors that produce (or inhibit) biased evaluations and, consequently, limit (or enable) the career advancement prospects for members of stigmatized groups. Her interest in leadership is rooted in the belief that a leader’s most important responsibility is to create a work climate that enables all employees – from both advantaged and disadvantaged groups – to contribute more fully to accomplishing the goals and missions of their organizations.

She deeply values service to others in both formal and informal capacities. She was elected as an executive committee member of the Academy of Management Gender and Diversity in Organizations division and is serving as the Chair of the Junior Faculty Consortium and Doctoral Student Consortium. Alison is also currently serving as a SIOP CEMA mentor and is a member of the PhD Project network. Alison is passionate about social justice and aspires to use her research as a tool for discussing timely issues that concern us all. She has published in journals such as Academy of Management Review, American Psychologist, Academy of Management Annals, Journal of Management, Human Resource Management Review, and Journal of Social Issues. She has also published work in Harvard Business Review.

July 3, 2020 - When and How to Respond to Microagressionsby Ella F. Washington, Alison Hall Birch and Laura Morgan Roberts

The Rotary Club of Arlington considers hosting excellent guest speakers like Dr. Alison Hall Birch. For further information, contact Kurt Bartley, President Elect.