Growing up in working-class Black Los Angeles, Desiree Cormier Smith was the brainy Catholic school kid who knew she wanted a career in public service, "but I didn't know what was possible," she said.
Now Smith is in the process of finding out, in a very high-profile way: she's the nation's new "Special Representative for Racial Equity and Justice," leading the Biden administration's State Department campaign to make human rights for marginalized groups a foreign policy priority.
The initiative grew out of an executive order issued by President Joe Biden on his first day in office, requiring every federal agency to "recognize and work to redress inequities in their policies and programs that serve as barriers to equal opportunity."
