CMTS Chair 

Pete Buttigieg - Secretary of Transportation Chair of the CMTS

Pete Buttigieg currently serves as the 19th Secretary of Transportation, having been sworn in on February 3, 2021.

Prior to joining the Biden-Harris Administration, Secretary Buttigieg served two terms as mayor of his hometown of South Bend, Indiana. A graduate of Harvard University and a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, Buttigieg served for seven years as an officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve, taking a leave of absence from the mayor’s office for a deployment to Afghanistan in 2014.

He is the son of Joseph Buttigieg, who immigrated to the United States from Malta, and Jennifer Anne Montgomery, a fifth-generation Hoosier.

Growing up in South Bend—which was once home to Studebaker car manufacturing—Pete Buttigieg, like many other Americans in the industrial Midwest, grew up surrounded by empty factories and abandoned houses, sometimes hearing that the only way to a good future was to get out.

He returned to the Midwest after school, worked in the private sector, and was elected Mayor of South Bend in 2011 with a focus on delivering a new future for the city through a fresh approach to politics and bold ideas.

Soon known as “Mayor Pete,” Buttigieg worked across the aisle to transform South Bend’s future and improve people’s everyday lives. Household income grew, poverty fell, and unemployment was cut in half. The city established new resources to extend opportunity and access to technology for all residents, and he launched a “Smart Streets” initiative to improve street design in the downtown and the historically under-resourced West Side. This Complete Streets strategy led to benefits that included small business growth along previously neglected corridors, and hundreds of millions of dollars in new private investment in the once-emptying downtown.

His leadership helped spark citywide job growth and facilitated innovative public-private partnerships like Commuters Trust, a benefits program designed to improve the city’s transportation experience for workers.

At the same time, Mayor Pete worked to build a South Bend community where every resident could feel safe and included. His initiative on municipal identification cards for residents helped to bring undocumented immigrants out of the shadows, while a small business incubator established in a historically Black neighborhood worked to expand opportunity, and a surge of investment went into repairing or removing abandoned houses in lower-income neighborhoods.

In 2019, he launched his historic campaign for president. Throughout 2020, he campaigned for the election of the Biden-Harris ticket and served on the advisory board for the presidential transition. In December, he was nominated by President-elect Biden to be Secretary of Transportation. He was confirmed by the Senate on February 2, 2021, becoming the first openly gay person confirmed to serve in a president’s Cabinet.

Secretary Buttigieg lives with his husband Chasten and their rescue dogs, Buddy and Truman.

Coordinating Board Chair

Nicole R. LeBoeuf - Assistant Administrator, NOAA's National Ocean Service

I am thrilled to serve as the leader of this team. I look forward to working with all of our member agencies to recruit and retain a resilient marine transportation workforce, and strengthen our infrastructure and supply chains in a rapidly changing world supported by once-in-a-generation funding opportunities. During this term, I believe we can build on the outstanding communication and collaboration that exists within the Coordinating Board to address our most pressing challenges.”

It is my honor to have been designated by Commerce Secretary Gina M. Raimondo as the chair of the U.S. Committee on the Marine Transportation System (CMTS) Coordinating Board for the term August 1, 2023 to July 31, 2024. The CMTS has grown into a strong and productive maritime policy coordinating committee through which the Federal maritime-related agencies engage to support our nation's marine transportation system. Under my term, the CMTS will build upon the Coordinating Board's work to advance the recruitment, retention, and diversification of the MTS and mariner workforce; support a more resilient MTS under climate change; and support Administration initiatives for an efficient, safe, and secure supply chain. 
Nicole R. LeBoeuf is the assistant administrator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA's) National Ocean Service, an organization of 1,800 staff in more than 50 locations around the country. As the assistant administrator at NOAA, Ms. LeBoeuf oversees all strategic and operational aspects of America’s premiere coastal and ocean agency. She provides the strategic vision needed to lead the implementation of activities that support NOS's priorities of safe and efficient transportation and commerce; preparedness and risk reduction; and stewardship, tourism and recreation. She serves as the focal point for conveying the value of NOS products and services within NOAA and to the Department of Commerce, the Office of Management and Budget, and Congress. Ms. LeBoeuf actively establishes and grows partnerships with other federal agencies, non-governmental organizations, and industry. She serves as the U.S. Representative to the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, where she advances the application of ocean and coastal observations in understanding and preparing for climate change and promoting U.S. best practices in ocean science for sustainable development and climate adaptation.
Ms. LeBoeuf has over 20 years of scientific and program management experience, with emphasis on the connections between science and policy. Previously, Ms. LeBoeuf served as the NOS deputy assistant administrator. In this role, she oversaw the financial, administrative, and performance activities across NOS to address the evolving economic, environmental, and social pressures on our ocean, coasts, and coastal communities. Prior to joining NOS, Ms. LeBoeuf served as acting deputy director of the Office of Protected Resources in NOAA Fisheries, and chief of the Marine Mammal and Sea Turtle Conservation Division in the Office of Protected Resources, where she maintained oversight of a diverse portfolio of protected species conservation and management activities. Ms. LeBoeuf has also worked in NOAA headquarters, in the NOAA Budget Office and as NOAA’s finance lead during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, in NOAA Fisheries’ Office of International Affairs as NOAA’s lead for the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, and as the special assistant to NOAA Fisheries science director, during which time she represented NOAA at the U.N. General Assembly and the World Conservation Union.
Ms. LeBoeuf grew up on the Texas Gulf Coast and knows the importance of coastal communities to our nation. She holds a bachelor’s degree in marine biology from Texas A&M University and a master’s degree in sustainable development and conservation biology from the University of Maryland.