Ambassador Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley Delivers Remarks Upon Being Named Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer at U.S. Department of State in Washington D.C. April 12, 2021. (Credit: Department of State)
By Gary Raynaldo DIPLOMATIC TIMES
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday named former ambassador Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley as the State Department’s first chief diversity officer to help make the diplomatic corps personnel reflect America. In February, the Biden State Department created a new Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer (CDIO) position at Foggy Bottom which Abercrombie-Winstanley, an African American, will now fill. In announcing the CDIO position in February, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, said the Department has the honor of representing the American people to the world. “To do that well, we must recruit and retain a workforce that truly reflects America,” he said at the time. Well, Abercrombie-Winstanley most certainly has a mammoth challenge ahead of her to change the face of the U.S. Foreign Service, which many critics characterize as being a deeply entrenched, systemic “pale, male, and Yale” culture. And by his own admission, Blinken said “the State Department simply isn’t as diverse and inclusive as it needs to be.” Having said that, Blinken provided some dire assessment on the Department’s treatment of minorities:
“Last year, the Government Accountability Office found that racial or ethnic minorities in the department’s Civil Service were up to 29 percent less likely to be promoted than their white peers with similar qualifications The report also found that the higher up you went in the department, the lower the proportion was of women and racial or ethnic minorities. In other words: up in rank, down in diversity.” – U.S. Secretary of State Blinken.
He said that as Secretary of State, his job is to ensure that “our foreign policy delivers for the American people.” According to Blinken, to achieve that, “we have to recruit and retain a workforce that truly reflects the American people. Diversity and inclusion make our diplomatic team stronger, smarter, more creative, more innovative.” Sounds good on paper but what about in reality? “The country can no longer afford a State Department that is pale, male, and Yale,” Karen Bass wrote in a Dec. 5 2020 article in Foreign Policy.
With Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken looking on, Ambassador Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, delivers remarks at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., on April 12, 2021. [State Department photo by Freddie Everett]
AMBASSADOR ABERCROMBIE-WINSTANLEY On Her New Diversity Role at Foggy Bottom:
“I believe that we, the Department of State, should and can become in the field of inclusion a leader. Indeed, we have the talent to become the model for diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workforce. We are at a particular time in America, and the world is watching us. As the Secretary said, we all share in the responsibility to ensure that each of us feels that we are not only having the opportunity to excel, but we are expected to reach our full potential. With our focus now on identifying and implementing the structural changes necessary to bring it about, we will ensure that the Department of State becomes the organization that deserves the devotion, the sacrifice, and the dedication that so many of us have freely given.”
Ambassador Abercrombie-Winstanley, a 30-year diplomat, was the longest-serving U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Malta. Earlier in her career, she served in Baghdad, Jakarta and Cairo before taking on the position of Special Assistant for the Middle East and Africa to the Secretary of State. Her Middle East assignments include election monitoring in the Gaza Strip and an assignment where she actively supported gender equality in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as the first woman to lead a diplomatic mission there. In addition to the State Department, she has held senior positions at the Defense Department and at the National Security Council of the White House. Ambassador Abercrombie-Winstanley, a Cleveland native, has degrees from The George Washington University and The Johns Hopkins University and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
