The White House’s first ever diversity officer just quit the role inside the Biden administration after three years in his position.
Michael Leach, a special assistant to President Joe Biden and the chief diversity and inclusion officer for the White House, departs after serving as a top aide to the Democrat since his 2020 presidential campaign, the White House said on Thursday.
Leach said he doesn’t have another job lined up but said he will take time to reflect on how to best increase equity across institutions before his next role. The White House has not immediately replaced its top diversity officer role but has launched a job search for the position.
Leach’s departure comes as diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts face growing backlash across major sectors including business, government, education, and health care.
Many organizations have increasingly challenged the efforts as discriminatory and that, ironically, help increase racism.
Republican politicians and activists have depicted “diversity, equity and inclusion,” or DEI, efforts as harmful to the country and enacted laws restricting such policies.
Biden has recently signed an executive order pushing diversity and inclusion in the federal workforce broadly.
Before joining Biden’s 2020 campaign, Leach worked at the National Football League for a decade in labor relations roles and earlier as an assistant to the head coach at the Chicago Bears.
“You could tell that Michael was destined for bigger things,” Bears Chairman George McCaskey said. “We weren’t surprised at all when he was in the White House.”
The Associated Press contributed to this article