Gov. Mark Dayton has hired a new state official to head the effort to bolster diversity in Minnesota's workforce and close long-standing racial disparities.
James Burroughs named Minnesota's new chief inclusion officer
His appointment comes on the heels of Gov. Dayton's vow to work harder to end racial disparities.
April 10, 2016 at 12:04AM
James C. Burroughs will be the state's chief inclusion officer, Dayton announced Friday. Burroughs is charged with helping increase the state's share of minority and disabled workers, improving state contracting with diverse businesses and boosting outreach to communities of color.
The DFL governor has vowed to double the percentage of state government jobs held by minorities by the end of his term in early 2019. That number now sits at less than 10 percent. Dayton has pledged $2.6 billion in his 2016 budget to assist with recruitment efforts to meet that goal.
Burroughs is a former Minneapolis public school official who has focused much of his career on racial equity. Dayton says he has a "proven record for success" in attracting diverse talent in both the public and private sectors.
Lena K. Gardner, an organizer with Black Lives Matter Minneapolis, applauded Dayton's decision to create the position as a step in the right direction.
"The state of Minnesota has failed its Black communities for too long," she said in a prepared statement. "Adjusting the state workforce to be more representative of our population and more genuinely inclusive of people who have been shut out of the system because of their cultural or other identities is the very beginning. ...
"I look forward to a bold commitment from both GOP and DFLers to end [racial disparities] definitively and in unequivocal terms with at least the same fervor with which new stadiums are erected."
A 10-person search committee chose Burroughs, a former attorney, from a group of more than 100 candidates. Several committee members cited Burroughs' breadth of experience leading diversity efforts in education, nonprofit consulting and law, where he assisted large firms in drawing and retaining more minority lawyers to Minnesota.
Burroughs previously served as an adjunct faculty member at Hamline University School of Law and the University of Minnesota Law School. He is a graduate of Morehouse College and Georgetown University Law Center.
The Detroit native lives in Brooklyn Park. He has a 3-year-old daughter.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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