On Tuesday, President Barack Obama nominated Deborah A. P. Hersman to chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
As a Board Member of the NTSB since June 2004, Hersman served as the NTSB's representative at 15 accidents and chaired a number of public events hosted by the NTSB, including a public hearing on motorcoach safety.
Hersman also holds a commercial drivers license with passenger, school bus and air brake endorsements and is a certified Child Passenger Safety Technician.
Before joining the NTSB, Hersman was a senior professional staff member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation from 1999 to 2004, where she was responsible for the legislative agenda and policy initiatives affecting surface transportation issues, including economic and safety regulation of railroads, trucks, buses, pipelines and hazardous materials transportation.