SES leaders are also a vital link between the top Presidential appointees, such as the Secretary of Education, Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State and
the respective federal workforce.
In October 2015, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) established an Interagency Policy Group to identify policies and practices to increase diversity in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)
workforce both in the
Federal Government and in federally - funded institutions of higher education, by reducing the impact of implicit and explicit bias in their
respective recruitment, hiring, development and training processes.