An internal report released by the Central Intelligence Agency on Tuesday concluded “senior leadership of the agency is not committed to diversity there has been little progress over the past several decades in diversifying the leadership cadre and pipeline, and in sustaining the hiring of diverse officers.”
The Diversity in Leadership Study (DLS), led by civil rights activist and CIA external board member Vernon Jordan, said that “the leadership of the CIA, over an extended period, has failed to recognize that diversity is critical to the mission of any complex organization” and also identified “a dramatic gap between the composition of the workforce and that of the leadership ranks.”
According to the report, racial and ethnic minority officers make up 23.9 percent of the entire CIA workforce but account for only 10.8 percent of the Senior Intelligence Service (SIS). Among senior managers, known as GS-15s in terms of government pay scales, minorities make up 15.2 percent. A similar gap between the workforce and the leadership ranks exists for minority female officers and officers with disabilities.
