16 COMMUNICATING FOR SAFETY • 2023
Speaker Spotlight
Polly Trottenberg
FAA Administrator (Acting)
P
olly Trottenberg is acting Administrator at the Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA) and Deputy Secretary at the US Department of Transportation (USDOT).
Polly was designated as acting Administrator in June 2023.
She has an extensive 30+ year public sector career in all levels of government.
Trottenberg served from 2014 to 2020 as New York City's Transportation
Commissioner, where she was responsible for the safe, efficient, and equitable
operations of New York City's transportation network.
Trottenberg served in the Obama Administration as the Assistant Secretary and
Under Secretary for Policy at the U.S. Department of Transportation. During
her previous five years at the Department, she developed and implemented
transportation policies to address the needs of state and local transportation
agencies on every type of project from roads and bridges, to transit and rail, to
airports, ports, and pipelines.
Trottenberg's additional policy and managerial experience includes her time in the
U.S. Senate, where she served Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Majority Leader
Charles Schumer, and Senator Barbara Boxer. Earlier in her career, Trottenberg
served at that Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Trottenberg graduated
from Barnard College and received her Master's in Public Policy from Harvard's
Kennedy School of Government.
