During his presidential campaign, then-candidate Joe Biden vowed his cabinet would be “the most diverse in history.”
It seems as President he is living up to that promise. There are more women and people of color in President Biden’s proposed cabinet than in the last four administrations.
“Building a diverse team will lead to better outcomes and more effective solutions to address the urgent crises facing our nation,” he said in a speech in December when announcing some of his cabinet nominees.
His cabinet has record-breaking nominations and fulfills Mr. Biden’s campaign promise to select a team that “looks like America” The diversity isn’t exclusive to the cabinet nominees. It extends throughout positions in the Biden-Harris Administration.
This month we’ll introduce you to some of the Black women that hold these positions.
Bonnie Jenkins
Ambassador Jenkins has been selected as the nominee for U.S. under secretary of state for arms control and international security affairs
Bonnie Jenkins is the founder and executive director of the Women of Color Advancing Peace, Security and Conflict Transformation (WCAPS), a nonprofit organization established in 2017. She is also the chair of the Committee on Radioactive Sources: Applications and Alternative Technologies of the National Academies of Sciences.
From 2009 to 2017, Jenkins was an ambassador at the U.S. Department of State, where she served as coordinator for threat reduction programs in the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation.
Jenkins was also part of the U.S. government interagency team that established and launched the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA), the global effort to build country capacities to prevent, detect and respond to infectious disease.
In addition to leading diplomatic efforts on the GHSA, she was the United States government lead in engaging the nongovernmental sector in furtherance of the GHSA. During this time, Jenkins established the GHSA Next Generation Network and the GHSA Consortium..
Jenkins is a retired Naval Reserves officer. She holds a doctorate from the University of Virginia; a Master of Laws from Georgetown University; a Master of Public Administration from the State University of New York at Albany; a Juris Doctor from Albany Law School; and a bachelor’s from Amherst College.
You can follow Ambassador Jenkins on Twitter here