While President Donald Trump’s administration and Cabinet quite noticeably lack diversity, President-elect Joe Biden has already shown he plans to do better, from naming the first Black and Asian American woman to serve as vice president-elect to picking Black and Latino women to serve in several central roles in his administration.
In keeping with Biden’s promise to select an administration that is as diverse as America is, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris is expected to name Tina Flournoy, a Black woman who served as chief of staff to former President Bill Clinton, as her chief of staff, journalist Yashar Ali initially reported and CNN confirmed. Georgetown University listed Flournoy’s newest distinction in a bio for the Georgetown Law graduate before later removing the title, which the vice president-elect herself hasn’t yet announced.
Flournoy, who’s had a decorated career in politics, served as assistant to the president for public policy at the American Federation of Teachers, a union representing more than 1.6 million members. “In that capacity she directed the work of the AFT’s legislative, political, field and mobilization, and human rights and community outreach departments,” the university said. She also served as head of former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean’s Democratic National Committee transition team and traveling chief of staff to 2000 Democratic vice presidential nominee Joseph Lieberman.
"Tina Flournoy is part of a group of Black women who refer to themselves as ‘The Colored Girls,’” Ali said. He listed Flourney among Democratic strategist Donna Brazile, author Yolanda Caraway, Democratic political operative Leah Daughtry, and political activist Minyon Moore. They are Black women who have worked at the highest levels of every Democratic campaign since the 1980s, Ali said.
Flournoy’s anticipated appointment follows the nomination of accomplished ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and the appointment of Shuwanza Goff as deputy director of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs. Goff, a “descendant of Africans enslaved on Sandy and Cat islands in South Carolina,” is the first Black woman to serve as floor director for the House of Representatives under House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. The Gullah Museum in South Carolina tweeted that her new position “will be a key role in the Biden administration because it means she will help guide the new president’s agenda through Congress.”
Rep. Ayanna Pressley said Thomas-Greenfield “has her work cut out for her to restore diplomatic relationships & redefine what a compassionate United States could do on the global stage.”
Thomas-Greenfield attributed her success to her mother’s advice. “My mother taught me to lead with the power of kindness and compassion to make the world a better place. I’ve carried that lesson with me throughout my career in Foreign Service – and, if confirmed, will do the same as Ambassador to the United Nations,” Thomas-Greenfield tweeted on Nov. 23.
If the president-elect’s pre-Thanksgiving announcements weren't enough to offer a glimmer of hope that America’s reputation could be salvaged, his selections this week surely must be. The Biden-Harris transition team announced on Monday that economist Cecilia Rouse, a former member of the Obama-Biden Council of Economic Advisers, would serve as chairwoman of the Council of Economic Advisers, making her the first Black woman to lead the council. “I am focused on the task ahead. This job is about advising the President on how to rebuild and revive our economy,” Rouse tweeted. “The planning for a fairer economy, grounded in facts and evidence, begins now.”
Biden and Harris also named three Black women on Sunday to an all-female communications team including Karine Jean-Pierre as principal deputy press secretary, Ashley Etienne as Harris' communications director, and Symone Sanders as Harris' senior adviser and chief spokesperson. All three women served as senior advisers on the Biden-Harris campaign. Jean-Pierre told Out Magazine “as a Black gay immigrant” from a working-class family, she knows “America hasn’t always worked for everyone.
“And I know that America still doesn’t work for everyone,” she added. “The truth of the matter is we have a long way to go. But that’s what I’m working toward: mobilizing people around this shared vision of what an America that works for everyone could look like — and then making it happen.”
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