First time in the history of the US federal government, the US Treasury Department’s Secretary Janet Yellen has appointed a counselor to promote racial equity, the Department announced on Monday.
Former JPMorgan Chase executive Janis Bowdler was appointed to lead the new government program aimed at combatting racial inequality in banking and other financial-services industries
Bowdler will be charged with coordinating Treasury’s efforts to advance racial equity as part of Biden administration’s multi-pronged strategy to deal with systemic racism in many parts of the economy.
She was previously president of the JPMorgan Chase & Co. Foundation that targets investments into underserved communities, and also worked at the National Council of La Raza, advocacy organization for Latino issues.
Since the US economy has historically not worked fairly for communities of color, Bowdler will engage, according to the Department’s release, with diverse communities throughout the country to identify and remove barriers within the Treasury Department to accessing benefits and opportunities.
The highest-ranking Latino in Congress and a long-time champion for diversity and inclusion, US Senator Bob Menéndez was among the first people to praise the appointment of Bowdler, stressing that the lack of representation contributes to broad discrimination in financial services that can cause systemic issues in the American financial system.
The Treasury Department also published Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo’s blog post on pursuing a coordinated strategy to promote diversity among the workforce and to advance racial equity, pointing to the creation of a Racial Equity Advisory Committee and other efforts.
A new coordinated plan by the Justice Department, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Comptroller of the Currency was announced last week aimed at investigating and prosecuting redlining- the historic practice of denying access to financing to Blacks and other minorities.
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