Obama Chooses Hersman to Chair NTSB
A board member for five years, she has been on-scene member at 15 events, including the devastating 2005 freight train chlorine spill in Graniteville, S.C.
Deborah A.P. Hersman, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board for the past five years, is President Obama's choice to chair the independent agency. The White House on June 9 announced the president intends to nominate Hersman for chairman; Mark V. Rosenker is acting chairman currently.
NTSB has five board positions, but only four are currently occupied. It investigates accidents in various transportation modes, and Hersman has been the member on scene in 15 such events since her appointment to the board on June 21, 2004. The list of her on-scene work available at www.ntsb.gov includes the May 2009 collision of two MBTA light rail trains in Boston; the September 2008 crash of a Maryland State Police EMS helicopter in Forestville, Md.; the Sherman, Texas, crash of a chartered bus in August 2008; and the January 2005 freight train collision and chlorine spill that killed nine people in Graniteville, S.C.
Hersman holds a motorcycle endorsement and a commercial driver's license with passenger, school bus, and air brake endorsements. Before joining NTSB, she was a senior staffer with the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation from 1999 to 2004, responsible for the legislative agenda and policy initiatives affecting surface transportation issues.