Mary Peters (Secretary of Transportation)

Mary E. Peters (born December 4, 1948) served as the United States Secretary of Transportation under President George W. Bush from 2006 to 2009. She is the second woman to hold the position.

Biography

Peters was born in Peoria, Arizona.

Public service career

Peters joined the Arizona Department of Transportation in 1985, and was appointed by Gov. Jane Dee Hull to serve as its director in 1998.

After George W. Bush took office as president in 2001, Peters left for Washington to work as the Administrator of the Federal Highway Administration. She worked in that capacity until 2005.

In 2006, President Bush appointed Peters as the Co-Vice Chairwoman of the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission. She resigned the post of Secretary of Transportation in anticipation of the in-coming Obama administration. She was succeeded by Ray LaHood, the 16th U.S. Secretary of Transportation on Thursday, January 22, 2009.

Arizona gubernatorial election speculation

In 2005, there was speculation that Peters would run for governor of Arizona in 2006. At the time, however, she said, while she believed she would have been a strong candidate, and was eligible to run despite having lived and registered to vote in Virginia, that the issue would have been a distraction from the...
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