PBS closes DEI office, announces diversity officers are leaving in response to Trump executive orders

PBS is shutting down its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) office and its diversity officers are leaving in response to President Donald Trump’s executive orders.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, PBS confirmed the news on Monday.

“In order to best ensure we are in compliance with the President’s executive order around Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion we have closed our DEI office. The staff members who served in that office are leaving PBS. We will continue to adhere to our mission and values. PBS will continue to reflect all of America and remain a welcoming place for everyone,” the statement said.

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PBS President and CEO Paula Kerger sent out a memo earlier in the day, according to the New York Times, informing her colleagues that after working with legal counsel on the matter of Trump’s executive orders on DEI, they decided to close the office.

“To ensure that we comply with the President’s Executive Order, we have closed our DEI office, and Cecilia Loving and Gina Leow are leaving PBS. I know you join me in wishing them well in future endeavors,” Kerger wrote.

She continued, “Our mission is to educate, engage and inspire the wide variety of American communities we serve will continue to be at the center of our work, and we’ll also continue to ensure that PBS remains a welcoming place for everyone.”

Loving was announced as the Senior Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in 2021, where her job was to “identify opportunities to build on PBS’s internal commitment to DEI,” “collaborate across departments to evaluate current business practices” and “work with the public television system to support stations’ ongoing efforts around DEI.”

Leow was also hired in 2021 as Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

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Within his first weeks in office, Trump signed executive orders banning DEI offices and programs in both the government and federally-funded public universities.