New York: Indian-American Meera Joshi has been nominated by New York City Mayor Eric Adams to serve on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Board. Joshi, a deputy mayor for operations for New York City since January 2022, oversees the Adams administration’s transportation infrastructure and climate portfolios. Announcing her nomination in a statement in February 2024, Mayor Adams called Joshi a “perfect” person to help “secure the MTA’s future and deliver a world-class, safe, reliable, and accessible transportation system to all New Yorkers”.

“New York City’s transit system is our backbone, and once confirmed to the MTA Board, Deputy Mayor Joshi will help ensure our backbone is stronger than ever,” Adams said. Joshi spearheaded the administration’s street safety work, which in 2023 helped make New York City the second-safest year for pedestrians since Vision Zero began in 2014, a statement from Adam’s office read.

 It said that her teams work every day to expand the city’s open, green, and aquatic space; reduce New York City’s building and transportation emissions, as well as its waste stream; and protect New Yorkers from the ever-mounting threats from excessive heat and rainwater. The MTA is responsible for public transportation in the New York City metropolitan area of the US state of New York and all its board nominations are subject to a confirmation from the state senate.

“Supporting the MTA’s fiscal and operational wellbeing through this moment of transition would be a great honor and privilege,” Joshi said in a statement expressing she is “deeply grateful” for the nomination. “From delivering needed upgrades to effectively operationalising congestion pricing, I am committed to faithfully serving the people of New York as a member of the MTA’s Board of Directors,” she added.

Prior to joining the Adams administration, Joshi was US President Joe Biden’s nominee for administrator of the US Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the agency responsible for regulation of interstate trucking. In addition to her roles in transportation oversight, Joshi was previously the inspector general for the New York City Department of Correction, responsible for investigations of corruption and criminality at all levels of New York City’s jail operations between 2002 and 2008.

She was the first deputy executive director of the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board, leading investigations of civilian allegations of police misconduct. Joshi holds both a B.A. and J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.