New group aims to groom more black senior managers

African-American employees with an eye toward advancing their careers in the federal government will soon have a vehicle to help them achieve their goals: the African American Federal Executives Association (AAFEA).

AAFEA is being formed to help increase the numbers of African-Americans at the GS-13 level and above. The founders include some African-American members of the Senior Executive Service.

One of the group's organizers, William Brown, sits on the board of the Senior Executives Association. Brown said the timing is right for the new group, since more and more federal employees are becoming eligible for retirement.

"Over the next few years, we are going to see a tremendous exodus of people and [we] want to do what we can to see things truly diversify," said Brown, deputy director for military programs at the Army Corps of Engineers.

AAFEA hopes to examine and remove barriers that confront African-Americans as they try to gain access to the senior ranks of government, Brown said. The group will help its members develop SES skills through a mentoring program. It also intends to form partnerships with federal agencies and other employee groups to ensure that African- Americans participate in career development and advancement programs.

"Those of us in the senior levels, we need to run a little bit of interference for others and show them where the openings are," said Brown, who joined the SES in 1995. "If we can double the number of African-Americans in the SES, then I would say we have been very, very successful. I think this is something whose time is come."

Members of Blacks In Government (BIG), a group that represents African-American employees in federal, state and local governments, expressed doubt about the need for a new organization to advocate on behalf of African-Americans in government.

Ramsey Alexander, a member of BIG's Washington area chapter, said AAFEA's goals could be accomplished using BIG's resources.

"Even if we do have a broad mandate, that doesn't prevent us from focusing on something like this," Alexander said.

BIG has long pushed for more diversity in the federal workplace. Last May, the group endorsed a letter sent by Reps. Danny Davis, D-Ill., Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., Elijah Cummings, D-Md, Albert Wynn, D-Md., and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., asking the Bush administration to more aggressively promote women and minorities into the SES.

While other employee organizations do a good job, none of them focus on getting African-Americans into the senior levels of government, Brown said.

"SEA deals with the broad issues of senior executives," he said. "We need to concentrate on getting African-Americans into the SES, into the senior ranks, because 'if you're not at the party you can't have a good time,' so to speak."