Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI Crime News
While the FBI’s most visible efforts to promote diversity within the ranks have focused on recruitment to build up the cadre of special agents, intelligence analysts, and professional staff, the Bureau’s executive corridor has undergone a similarly resolute transition to better represent the communities the FBI serves.
“We keep saying that diversity makes us better and stronger,” Director Christopher Wray said in a speech in 2019. “And we keep saying it because it’s true. Just as the entire FBI has to be representative of the diverse people we serve, our leadership ranks have to be representative of the rest of the organization.”
To that end, the Director has made signature appointments in recent months of two African Americans and two women—one of them the highest-ever ranking Asian American—to the FBI’s top executive positions, a reflection of his commitment to making the 112-year-old organization more representative and inclusive. The FBI’s current slate of executive assistant directors represents the Bureau’s most diverse leadership team ever. Together, they oversee the full sweep of the FBI’s intelligence, criminal, and cyber functions, as well as human resources and technology.
These appointments reflect the Bureau’s long-term commitment to recruit, train, and advance a talented and diverse workforce. In response to questions from members of Congress recently, Director Wray said there’s still much to be done. “I do believe the FBI needs to be more diverse and more inclusive than it is,” he said on March 2, “and that we need to work a lot harder at that, and we are trying to work a lot harder on that.”