Dignity & Respect founder headed to job at Twitter

Candi Castleberry Singleton, a standard bearer for expanding opportunities among women and minorities in Pittsburgh, has accepted the challenge of doing thesame for Twitter.

She has been named the social media service’s new vice president of inclusion anddiversity.

The hiring of Ms. Castleberry was announced by Jack Dorsey, Twitter cofounder and chief executive, with an eye toward aligning the San Francisco-based company’s makeup with the demographicsof its users.

In Pittsburgh, Ms. Castleberrywas chief inclusion and diversity officer at UPMC until 2015, when she left to focus on her role as founder and CEO of Dignity & Respect Inc., a campaign that evolved into a national initiative. She also was an adjunct faculty member at Carnegie Mellon University and was chairwoman of the first Crossroads Conference for Women in 2015.

She served on the boards of the University of Pittsburgh's Institute of Politics, NEED, Pittsburgh Promise, Women and Girls Foundation, Urban League, and the Hill House Association, as well as a number of volunteer projects including the East End Cooperative Ministries and the United Way Women LeadershipCouncil.

“I'm so excited to join the team at Twitter to lead inclusion and diversity efforts for employees and the Twitter community,” she said in a statement. “I look forward to bringing what I’ve learned to Twitter.”

Twitter has been criticized for its lack of women and minorities, especially considering the popularity of the social media service with those segmentsof the population.