Photo Courtesy of Georgia Public Broadcasting
Keisha Lance Bottoms will soon be the latest addition to the Biden administration– serving as the Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement (OPE).
On Tuesday, the former Mayor of Atlanta confirmed the news of her new position by posting on Instagram a screenshot of an article from Axios, which reported the news of Lance Bottoms’ new job first. She captioned the post, “#honored.”
Over a year ago, Lance Bottoms affirmed that she would not be going for re-election, enabling her to get the director of the OPE. According to the OPE website, the office “is responsible for creating and coordinating direct dialogue between the Biden-Harris administration and the diverse American public.” It also works at a local, state, and national level.
The Delta Sigma Theta member is replacing the former Louisiana Congressman Cedric Richmond, who was the director of OPE until April.
Lance Bottoms is Biden’s latest addition to his efforts to diversify his executive branch leaders and presidential advisers with more Black people. After being pressured to add more minorities, Biden did not hesitate to hire some of the most familiar household names like the Georgia governor candidate Stacey Abrams, Vice President Kamala Harris, and actress Keshia Knight Pulliam.
The 46th president has been making history with his efforts, like appointing Karine Jean-Pierre as the White House’s press secretary and becoming the first Black and openly LBTQ+ person to serve that role. He made Harris his Vice President, making her the first Black woman vice president. Additionally, Judge Ketjani Brown Jackson became the first Black woman on the Supreme Court in April after Biden nominated her.
While many of Biden and Harris’ choices were Black females like Harris’ chief spokeswoman Symone Sanders, the Co-chair of Biden’s Coronavirus task force Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, and Deputy Director of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs Shuwanza Goff, there were Black men. Biden chose Retired Gen. Lloyd Austin to oversee
the Department of Defense. Jaime garrison was selected to be the chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Biden made Micahel Regan the first Black man to run the Environmental Protection Agency as the administrator.