NWS Movies with a Mission Series 2021-22

Changing the Face of Bias: Coded Bias - A Two-Part Series

This October, you're invited to a two-part series, including a Coded Bias movie screening followed by a community discussion.

Open to parents/guardians, students, faculty, and alumni, the movie screening and discussion aim to build community and belonging by creating spaces for a shared experience to pique curiosity and inspire informed action within The Northwest School community.

The film, which may be screened between October 6 and 20, follows M.I.T. Media Lab computer scientist Joy Buolamwini along with data scientists, mathematicians, and watchdog groups from all over the world, as they fight to expose the discrimination within facial recognition algorithms now prevalent across all spheres of daily life.

Following the movie screening, we will convene an engaging community conversation with inspiring individuals who are addressing DEI, environmental sustainability, and global perspectives from a variety of sectors and approaches on October 20. This event aims to further strengthen the connections among these key areas of engagement, each of which is integral to the mission of The Northwest School. Details and links are below.

Part 1: Movie Screening

October 6-20
Screen the movie individually or with your family.

Follow computer scientist Joy Buolamwini, along with researchers, mathematicians, and watchdog groups from across the world as they expose the discrimination within facial recognition algorithms now prevalent across all spheres of our daily lives.

Virtual screening link:
https://www.wmm.com/virtual-screening-room/coded-bias-watch-page-the-northwest-school/
When the video goes live on Oct. 6th, you can access the film with the password CODBIAWAT23. You will need both the link and the password.

Part 2: Community Discussion

October 20
7:00 - 8:30 PM

Guest speakers Sam Cho (Port of Seattle), Professor Anna Lauren Hoffmann (University of Washington), Belicia Smith (Harvard University), and Frances Tee (NWS) will lead an engaging virtual community discussion about the film. See bios, below.

Zoom discussion link:
https://thenorthwestschool.zoom.us/j/94761137039?pwd=dFpNajY2Uy91dTNNb2plc1JQeVV2UT09
Meeting ID: 947 6113 7039
Passcode: 977153

Organizers:
Jenny Cooper, Director of Environmental Education and Sustainability
Catalina Martinez, Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Dmitry Sherbakov, Director of Global Programs
Frances Tee, Computer Science, EdTech Coordinator

Please note: This year’s iteration of the Environmental Sustainability Speaker Series is now fully woven into the Movies with a Mission Series. We are all thrilled about the collaboration among our offices of DEI, Environmental Sustainability, Global Perspectives, and EdTech, and we are excited to continue inviting compelling guest speakers to join us in conversation on topics at the critical intersection of these fields. Future movies with a Mission Series discussion dates: February 2, April 20.

Speaker Bios:

Sam Cho: Port of Seattle Commissioner. Sam was elected to the Port Commission in 2019. He is the son of immigrants from South Korea, who came to the United States through the Port of Seattle. He is currently the only person of color serving on the Commission.

Commissioner Cho was the Founder and CEO of Seven Seas Export, an international trading company that was headquartered in Seattle and exported to Asia. He identified an opportunity to sell eggs to Asian countries that were experiencing an egg shortage at the height of Asia’s avian influenza (bird flu) epidemic in the winter of 2016. He exported more than 2.5 million pounds of eggs to countries like South Korea.

Prior to his entrepreneurial endeavor, Commissioner Cho was a political appointee under President Barack Obama serving at the US General Services Administration. He helped manage a federal agency of more than 10,000 federal employees and worked on executing the administration’s agency-wide policies in real asset management, federal procurements, acquisitions, and technology.

His priorities as a commissioner include promoting trade, working towards environmental sustainability, ensuring diversity and inclusion in the workforce and contracting, and stopping human trafficking.

Professor Anna Lauren Hoffmann: An Assistant Professor in The Information School at the University of Washington, Anna is also a senior fellow with the Center for Applied Transgender Studies and an affiliate faculty member with the UW iSchool's DataLab.

In particular, her research focuses on the ways ethics, values, and norms are (or are not) articulated relative to data and information technologies, with specific attention paid to: 1) competing conceptions of justice and injustice, domination and subjugation, and inclusion and exclusion relative to data, information, and technology; and, 2) the ways they evoke or elude questions of gender, race, and other social organizing categories. Additionally, she works and writes on issues around ethics education for data professionals and computer scientists, focusing on the possibilities (and limits) of research ethics, ethics codes, and data metaphors for confronting the challenges posed by pervasive surveillance and processes like machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Belicia Smith: Belicia Smith works with CSTA and K-12 school districts on adopting and improving their CS/STEM equity teaching practices, strategies, and policies. She works with students and educators in the classroom setting as well as administrators and other school leaders at a structural level. Her work in education includes family and community engagement.

Belicia was an integral member of MIT’s Teaching Systems Lab team who developed the “Becoming a More Equitable Educator” course. She led all of the face-to-face PD used in schools that helped to prototype course elements. As a learning designer, facilitator, and consultant across K-12 Equity and Anti-Racist work, Belicia curates custom conversations on the film Coded Bias to help educators critically reflect on the main concepts and other elements of the film that can easily be overlooked or understated.

She develops custom Professional Development, including versions of equity courses for school communities, and building course materials, and offers consulting around strategy for weaving equity themes into school plans.

She holds a B.A. in English Literature with a focus on African American literature from CSU Sacramento and an M.A. in Education with a focus on Human Development and Psychology from Harvard Graduate School of Education.