A former ambassador of the United States to Malta has been made the State Department's first chief diversity officer, a position created to make the US diplomatic corps more representative.

The appointment of Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley was announced by Secretary of State Antony Blinken. 

Introducing Abercrombie-Winstanley, Blinken said the department and the country were at a "moment of reckoning" on racial equality, referring to the Black Lives Matter movement and attacks against Asian Americans. 

Abercrombie-Winstanley, a career diplomat since 1985, served as US ambassador to Malta between 2012-2016, showing a keen interest in local affairs.

Blinken said the lack of diversity at the highest levels of the department was alarming but could be traced through its history and seen in the portraits of former secretaries that line the corridor to his office. 

"It's hard not to notice that almost every one of the secretaries along the hallway is a white man," Blinken said. 

“We are at a particular time in America, and the world is watching us,” Abercrombie-Winstanley said at the ceremony.