People of Color Under-Represented in Public Service Leadership

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Also according to the data, staffs of US Representatives are under-represented in key positions: only 13 percent of chiefs of staff are people of color; approximately 13 percent of House legislative directors are people of color; and only about 22 percent of senior legislative aides and legislatives aides are people of color.

The report illustrates that state and local governments don't fair much better. In state government among the 50 governors of the United States, 92 percent are of White, non-Hispanic heritage, and that only 13 of the 50 states and the District of Columbia have a chief diversity officer on record. Among the five most diverse states, people of color are under-represented in state legislatures, including the state house of representatives/assembly and the state senate.

In county and local governments sixty-one percent of our nation's 18 most diverse counties have an executive who is identified as a person of color. In the majority of the nation's most diverse cities, there is an under-representation of people of color on city councils, in comparison with their percentage of the general population. In two cities, San Francisco, California, and San Antonio, Texas, the percentage of people of color on the city council, 71 percent and 90 percent, respectively, exceeds the percentage of people of color in the general population, 58 percent and 73 percent, respectively.

A review of diversity in the nonprofit sector also indicates that leaders of color lag behind in executive positions. For nonprofit boards and executive leadership positions, data indicate that the vast majority (88 percent) of nonprofit executives are of White, non-Hispanic heritage, and that only 12 percent are people of color. In 2010, 86 percent of the members of nonprofit boards of directors were White, non-Hispanic, and only 14 percent were people of color.

The goal of the Public Service Leadership Diversity Initiative, founded by National Urban Fellows in 2010, is not only to achieve proportional representation in the public service sector by building a pipeline of talented, highly skilled candidates of color, but to dismantle the barriers to inclusion and to support the public's recognition that diversity in leadership leads to organizational excellence and results. With a dual emphasis on individuals and systems, and through research, communications, stakeholder mobilization, and action, the Public Service Leadership Diversity Initiative will seek out partners to develop a new, inclusive paradigm of public service leadership.

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posted May 23, 2012 8:50 am edt