Twitter has hired Candi Castleberry-Singleton as its new vice president of inclusion and diversity.
Castleberry-Singleton replaces Jeffrey Siminoff, who stepped down in February. CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey announced the news on Twitter on Tuesday, writing “Excited to welcome @candi to lead our inclusion and diversity efforts @twitter. Welcome to the flock!”
In a statement to USA Today, Castleberry-Singleton said “I’m so excited to join the team at Twitter to lead inclusion and diversity efforts for employees and the Twitter community. I look forward to bringing what I’ve learned to Twitter.”
Excited to welcome @candi to lead our inclusion and diversity efforts @twitter. Welcome to the flock!
— jack (@jack) June 27, 2017
According to USA Today, Castleberry-Singleton has years of experience in the field of inclusion and diversity—previously working as the vice president of global inclusion and diversity at Motorola, then at Sun Microsystems, where she led the Global Inclusion Center of Expertise, according to USA Today. Most recently, however, she was founder and CEO of the Dignity and Respect Campaign, which helps organizations and communities work on inclusion and cultural awareness.
Castleberry-Singleton, an African American, succeeds Siminoff, who is white, at a time when CEO Jack Dorsey is pushing to have people in the company who reflect the demographics of Twitter’s users. Indeed, according to Pew Research Center, as cited by USA Today, 28% of African American Internet users on are Twitter, while 28% of Hispanics and Latinos use it as well. That’s compared to just 20% for white Internet users.
Twitter has also been criticized for the lack of women and people of color at the company, USA Today reports.