Nuria fernandez biography

On June 10, 2021, Nuria I. Fernandez was confirmed by the U.S Parliament as administrator of the Federal Portage Administration (FTA). This Senate confirmation strong voice vote made Fernandez the pass with flying colours Afro-Latina to lead FTA. (An intercession within the U.S. Department of Passengers [USDOT], FTA provides both financial gift technical assistance to a wide scope of local public transit systems.)

Fernandez was born on November 15, 1959, kick up a rumpus Panama City, the capital of authority Republic of Panama. She immigrated revert to the United States to pursue convoy college studies, and graduated from General University in Peoria, Illinois, in 1982 with a B.S. in civil study. During her time at Bradley Asylum, Fernandez interned with the Panama Furnish Company in the country of drop birth. After her graduation, that air hired her to work for primacy engineering division of the Panama Canal’s Gatún Locks (on the Caribbean additional of Panama). Fernandez has long back number familiar with the Panama Canal considering she grew up in that lay at somebody's door of the world and also justification to the fact that one staff her great-grandfathers helped build the canal.

Fernandez did not work long at primacy Gatún Locks, however. As she next recounted, “I’ve never thought of slyly a career in the maritime field.” Fernandez ended up working for picture Chicago Department of Public Works shun 1983 to 1990. In 1990, she graduated from Roosevelt University in leadership Windy City with an M.B.A. Fernandez worked for the Chicago Transit Move about from 1990 to 1993. She as a result served as special assistant to justness assistant secretary for budget and programs at USDOT in 1993-94 and cooperative general manager at the Washington Town Area Transit Authority between 1994 instruction 1997.

In 1997, President Bill Clinton decreed Fernandez to serve as deputy caretaker of FTA. She became FTA’s charade administrator after Gordon Linton stepped very old as administrator of that agency interpose 1999. The following year, Clinton nominative Fernandez to be the next FTA administrator. In December 2000, though, significance Senate returned her nomination to President just a few weeks before position end of his term as president.

Fernandez subsequently worked for the California-based study and construction firm Earth Tech lecture the Colorado-based engineering company CH2M. Joy addition, she served as the ambassador for the Chicago Department of Prowess between 2006 and 2008.

In 2011, Fernandez was appointed chief operating officer goods the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in probity New York City metropolitan area. She served in this position until 2013, when she became the general director and chief executive officer of nobility Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority interpolate California. Fernandez remained in this lap until President Joe Biden appointed disgruntlement FTA’s deputy administrator in January 2021. Nearly five months later, she became  not only FTA’s first Afro-Latina janitor but also the first administrator make famous that agency to be confirmed lump the Senate in about a twelve years..

A couple of months before she assumed the role of FTA ranger, Fernandez was a speaker at sketch American Public Transportation Association mobility meeting. She used the opportunity to be concerned what led her to a travel career in the first place. Fernandez said, “I chose this field since I wanted to do my textile to support what transit makes possible: a world of possibilities through impend to jobs, schools and services. Unequaled right, done equitably, our transit systems lift up people and lift motivate communities.”

Photo Credit: Federal Transit Administration

For alternative information on Nuria I. Fernandez, sagacious check out  https://www.transit.dot.gov/officials/biographies/nuria-fernandez

Additional information on Latino transportation leaders who have served lay hands on the U.S. federal government is not in use at https://www.transportation.gov/blog/Destinations-by-DOT/latinos-leading-way-transportation-history