Polly Trottenberg is Deputy Secretary at the US Department of Transportation (USDOT). As the number two official and Chief Operating Officer, she supports Secretary Buttigieg on providing leadership and strategic vision for USDOT. She has an extensive 25+ year public sector career in all levels of government. Trottenberg served from 2014 to 2020 as New York City’s Transportation Commissioner, where she ran a complex 5,800-person agency responsible for the safe, efficient, and equitable operations of New York City’s transportation network, including 6,000 miles of roadways, 789 bridges, the nation’s largest traffic operation and parking system, the Staten Island Ferry, and extensive bicycle, pedestrian, and public plaza infrastructure, as well as key initiatives in urban mobility, smart transportation technologies, and safety.
In New York, Trottenberg helped implement the landmark Vision Zero program, the first in the U.S., taking a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary approach to significantly reduce traffic fatalities and injuries. She also led the New York City Department of Transportation through COVID-19 response and recovery, prioritizing transforming City streets to promote livability, sustainable transportation, and economic recovery.
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. Trottenberg graduated from Barnard College and received her Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.