NTSB Chairman Announces Two Senior Staff Designations

National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman this week filled two senior management positions at the agency.

Dr. David L. Mayer was named Managing Director, the senior career position at the Safety Board. Dr. Mayer has been Deputy Managing Director since January 2005.

Mayer began his career at the Safety Board in 1991 in the Office of Research and Engineering, where he was responsible for transportation safety databases, and for the design and management of safety studies. In 1996 he moved to the Office of Aviation Safety, where he worked on a number of the Board's investigations. He was extensively involved in the investigation into the crash of TWA flight 800, being responsible both for investigative data management and for serving as chairman of the witnesses group. He also served as Deputy Chief, and later Acting Chief, of the Human Performance Division. He moved to the Managing Director's Office in 2001.

Mayer was trained as a human factors specialist, and holds a doctorate from Rice University in Houston, Texas.

Nancy Lewis has been named Director of Government Affairs. As such she will be responsible for maintaining the agency's relationship with the United States Congress and agencies of the federal government. Lewis came to the NTSB in April 2005 as the Special Assistant to then Board Member Hersman. Before coming to the Board, she worked in the Office of General Counsel for the Transportation Security Administration and for 13 years before that in the Office of Chief Counsel at the Federal Railroad Administration. She was detailed for a year by FRA to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.

Lewis is a graduate of the University of Southwestern Louisiana and of Louisiana State University School of Law.