Answering calls to bring more diversity to staffing for the U.S. Senate, Senator-Elect Doug Jones' transition team announced Tuesday the hiring of key senior staff positions, including a black Birmingham native who has been selected as chief of staff.

Jones

on Wednesday. He defeated his Republican opponent, Roy Moore, during the Dec. 12 special election to fill Jeff Session's seat.

Dana Gresham, a 1989 graduate of A. H. Parker High School, has been tapped for the chief of staff position. He has over 22 years of government experience.

In 2009, he was nominated by then-president Barack Obama to serve as the assistant secretary for governmental affairs, a position Gresham held for all eight years of the Obama administration.

Gresham also served 14 years on Capitol Hill. During 11 of those years, he served in senior staff positions within the Alabama congressional delegation. Before his hiring as chief of staff for Jones, Gresham worked as a consultant for Federal City Council, a nonprofit organization promoting economic development in the Washington, D.C. area.

Gresham's hiring makes Jones the only Democratic senator to have a black chief of staff, according to the Washington Post. There are two Hispanic women who hold the same title on the Democratic side. Two Republican senators have black chiefs of staff.

Jones' team also hired Sonceria Ann Bishop-Berry, a black woman who is also from Birmingham, as transitional advisor. Berry is a J. H. Phillips High School and University of North Alabama graduate. She moved to D.C. in 1979 to work for late senator Howell Heflin. Since Heflin's retirement, she has worked for many senators, including Daniel Patrick Moynihan, John Edwards, Tom Carper and as Deputy Chief of Staff to Senator Patrick Leahy.

Katie Campbell, of Montevallo, was selected to be deputy legislative director. Campbells has worked for members in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the senate. She most recently handled health policy for Senator Joe Donnelly.

Mark Libell, who is from Florence, was selected to become the legislative director, a position he has held before with senator John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia. After Rockefeller's retirement in 2014, Mark has been Assistant Congressional Liaison at the Federal Reserve Board.