Massachusetts Secretary of Transportation Gina Fiandaca will step down in September, letting longtime bus advocate Monica Tibbits-Nutt to take her place as the chief executive of MassDOT.
“I will be stepping down as the Secretary of the Department of Transportation effective September 11th. I want to thank Governor Healey for the honor and privilege of leading MassDOT during this transformative time in transportation," said Fiandaca in a press statement issued on Monday.
Fiandaca has been serving as MassDOT's leader since Gov. Healey recruited her for her new administration in January. She is the first Healey cabinet appointee to announce her resignation, after only 8 months on the job.
Monica Tibbits-Nutt, who has been serving as an undersecretary to Fiandaca and who previously had served as the Executive Director of the Route 128 Business Council and as the vice-chair of the MBTA's former governing board, will take over as the acting transportation secretary after Fiandaca's departure.
Fiandaca spent most of her career at Boston City Hall, where she rose through the ranks at the Boston Transportation Department and eventually became the commissioner of transportation in former Mayor Marty Walsh’s administration.
She left Boston for three years to serve as an assistant city manager for mobility initiatives in Austin, Texas, from 2019 until her return to Massachusetts in January 2023.
“Lieutenant Governor Driscoll and I are grateful for Gina’s leadership at the Department of Transportation," said Governor Healey in a press statement issued on Monday. "She hit the ground running and has delivered on many of our key transportation priorities. We are confident that the Department of Transportation will be in good hands and well-positioned to continue this important work with Monica Tibbits-Nutt as Acting Secretary."
Fiandaca's successor, Monica Tibbits-Nutt, served on the MBTA's former governing board, the Fiscal Management and Control Board, from its founding in 2015 until its last meeting in 2021.
During her tenure there, she earned a reputation for being a strong advocate for bus riders, and for initiatives to improve bus service, like the bus network redesign.
StreetsblogMASS interviewed Tibbits-Nutt in November 2021, after a new governing board replaced the FMCB.
In that interview, Tibbits-Nutt talked about how she became a transit advocate, and how public transit enabled her to be the first person in her family to attend college and grad school.
"It sounds kind of cheesy, but I’m fighting for my family, and for my community, and for the people I represent," Tibbits-Nutt told StreetsblogMASS. "That is the entire basis of everything I do."
