This profile contains Biden Administration nominations and appointments made at the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Nominations and Appointments

Pete Buttigieg is Secretary of Transportation. He is the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana and unsuccessfully sought the Democratic Party’s 2020 Presidential nomination. He also formerly served as an intelligence officer in the United States Navy Reserve, as a consultant for McKinsey & Company, and worked on John Kerry’s 2004 Presidential campaign.¹

Nuria Fernandez is Administrator of the Federal Transit Administration, where she had served as Deputy Administrator since January 20, 2021. She formerly served as General Manager and Chief Executive Officer of the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, as Chief Operating Officer of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority, as Senior Vice President of Design and Construction for both the Chicago Transit Authority and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, and as Commissioner for the Chicago Department of Aviation. During the Clinton Administration, she served as Acting Administrator of the Federal Transit Administration. She has served as Chair of the American Public Transportation Association, and as a member of the boards of the Mineta Transportation Institute and the Transportation Learning Center, and on the executive committee of the Transportation Research Board.²

Polly Trottenberg is Deputy Secretary of Transportation. She formerly served as Commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation.³ She has also served as a Distinguished Visiting Urbanist at New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service, and on the boards of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council, the Intelligent Transportation Society of America, and TRANSCOM. During the Obama Administration, Trottenberg served as the Assistant Secretary and Under Secretary for Policy at the U.S. Department of Transportation. She also worked in the U.S. Senate for Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Charles Schumer (D-NY), and Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY).⁴ She was also the former Executive Director of Building America’s Future.⁵

1. “Pete Buttigieg.” Ballotpedia. Accessed December 16, 2020. Available at: https://ballotpedia.org/Pete_Buttigieg ^
2. “Nuria Fernandez.” Federal Transit Administration. Accessed June 14, 2021. Available at: https://www.transit.dot.gov/officials/biographies/nuria-fernandez
3. Wanek-Libman, Mischa. “Polly Trottenberg Resigns From NYC DOT.” Mass Transit. November 25, 2020. Accessed January 14, 2021. Available at: https://www.masstransitmag.com/management/article/21164116/polly-trottenberg-resigns-from-nyc-dot
4. “Our Faculty: Polly Trottenberg.” NYU Wagner. Accessed January 14, 2021. https://wagner.nyu.edu/community/faculty/polly-trottenberg
5. “Building America’s Future Applauds Polly Trottenberg’s Nomination to the U.S. Department of Transportation.” Building America’s Future. Accessed January 14, 2021. https://action.bafuture.org/news/building-america%E2%80%99s-future-applauds-polly-trottenberg%E2%80%99s-nomination-us-department-transportation