Research repeatedly demonstrates the prevalence of unconscious bias in daily life and organizational processes. In fact, studies surface every year that illustrate the effects of gender and racial bias in all types of recruitment situations, for positions at all levels, and across all types of businesses, organizations, and institutions. Almost every Humboldt employee will be involved, at one time or another, in a hiring committee, and developing strategies for avoiding unconscious bias forms the foundation of our Action Plan for Workplace Diversity at Humboldt. This session will focus on identifying the various avenues whereby unconscious bias can enter the hiring process, and on developing strategies to avoid this. We will focus this session on those stages of the hiring process undertaken by search committee members, including reviewing files, interviewing candidates, and conducting reference checks.