Secretary of State Anthony Blinken appointed Zakiya Carr Johnson to the position of Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s Chief Diversification, Equity, and Inclusion Officer on Tuesday.

The position, which Blinken created upon taking office as part of the Biden administration’s commitment to instilling DEI in all facets of government, has remained vacant since Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley resigned in June 2023.

“American diplomacy can only succeed if it fully harnesses all of the talent that our nation has to offer,” Blinken stated in an interview. “That is one of the reasons I established the post of CDIO to help elevate DEIA within our institution and provide it with the top-level consideration it deserves. In the last three years Department of State has Department of State has made significant progress in this area however there is still work to be accomplished. It will be a priority to continue pursuing this goal vigorously, since recruiting and nurturing the most competent workforce is crucial for our security.”

Carr Johnson has been on staff for the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs since March 2021, as per her LinkedIn. She is also the co-founder and director of Black Women Disrupt Black Women Disrupt, an organisation that aims in order to “break paradigms of poverty, inequality and exclusion of Black communities in the Americas and across the African diaspora,” according to the organization’s website. Carr Johnson is also the co-founder of Odara Solutions, an Atlanta-based consulting firm. She was previously director and senior advisor to the Department of State’s race, ethnicity and social inclusion division under President Barack Obama.

The diversity expert offers an “fresh perspective on how we build a workforce that reflects America,” Blinken told reporters in an “commitment to inclusive leadership.”

in 2020 Carr Johnson participated in an online webinar on “intersectional feminism” for the Feminist Leadership Project. When asked about her definition of leadership for women was Carr Johnson, a State Department official said that “feminist leadership to me is essential.”

“It goes beyond saying that we need to have representation,” she added. “Feminist leadership actually goes up to 3 or 4 steps. It’s not enough just to include women in the room to fill seats, or whatever you want to refer to it as. Women should be involved in making decisions, and in a way that is challenging of traditional structures, critical of how we’ve always conducted ourselves and critical of the effect of our decisions on women as well as the entire society. Critical of power dynamics and the way we make use of power.”

“There is a value ascribed to my complexion, to my color, to my history, to my culture, to my experience as a black woman,” she added. “This manifests not only in the way programming is conducted as well as when discussing leadership. How many people like me hold leadership positions and actually help in shaping how policies are made, affect how programs are developed as well as our perception of our world.”

Carr Johnson noted that “traditional systems” are rooted in the histories of patriarchy, colonialism, and misogyny. Carr Johnson urged females to “analyze those power dynamics on a day-to-day basis” in order to gain an “better sense of what feminist leadership looks like.”

“The tradition of misogyny permitted men to behave without consequences, and then it’s the norm that we accept as is normal, isn’t it? To be able to change anything it is imperative to focus on breaking down the traditional structures at every point,” she said.

This DEI director was also an Atlantic Fellow for racial equity in the year 2019. In her bio, Carr Johnson wrote, “I believe that to dismantle anti-Black racism, we must remove structural barriers and recognise Black communities and Black women as valuable sources of strength, talent and ingenuity, and invest in them accordingly.”

In the past, the State Department under Blinken has focused a lot on DEI initiators. In February the Secretary of State released an official memo entitled “Modeling DEIA: Gender Identity Best Practices” to employees regarding the possibility from “misgendering.” The cable contained guidelines on how to stay clear of using terms such as “mother/father,” “son/daughter,” and “husband/wife,” terms he believed could convey the message of a “harmful, exclusionary message.” In 2022, Blinken appointed the department’s first ever representative for equality and justice in the racial spectrum, Desiree Cormier Smith, to tackle “systemic racism, discrimination, and xenophobia around the world.” Blinken has designated the position of a “special envoy to advance the human rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex Persons,” and has released many reports on sexual identity, gender and the use of pronouns.

Although the Biden administration continued to promote DEI companies and universities have been easing down DEI-related jobs in the last few months, after the industry exploded following George Floyd’s assassination in the year 2020. Since then, a more vocal segment of Americans and even elected Republicans have questioned DEI’s emphasis on race as a source of toxicity and unjust.

House Oversight Committee Republicans recently called on the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission last month to reduce DEI and to take “all available measures to prevent and end unlawful employment practices that discriminate on the basis of an individual’s race or color.”