K. Jane Williams served as the Acting Administrator of the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) from August 2017 through January 2021. Ms. Williams brought more than 25 years of executive experience to her role, having served previously at the Department of Energy and Department of Labor under President Reagan and the Department of the Interior under President George H.W. Bush. Ms. Williams also worked in the Legislative Branch as a Senior Legislative Advisor to a member of the US House of Representatives. In addition to her Federal experience, Ms. Williams also served in state government as the Director of the Washington Area Transit Office within the Maryland Department of Transportation under Governor Larry Hogan and received a Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of Maryland in College Park. 

As Acting Administrator, Ms. Williams led an agency of more than six hundred people located in Washington D.C. and ten regional offices across the country and was responsible for managing an annual budget of over $13.5 billion assisting more than 3,000 transit providers in all U.S. states and territories. As one of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s nine operating administrations and the second-largest grant making agency in the department, she was responsible for managing financial and technical assistance to local public transit systems, including buses, subways, light rail, commuter rail, trolleys, and ferries.

Ms. Williams led the agency through some of the most challenging times in the transportation industry all while managing some of the largest formula and competitive grant programs in the Department, including FTA’s support of the transit industry and their response to COVID-19.

She began her tenure by managing FTA’s response to three major hurricanes which was followed by one of the longest Federal government shutdowns in recent history. Under her leadership, hundreds of transit agencies received more than $500 million in payments on the first day federal employees returned to work!

She also established FTA’s State Safety Oversight program and managed formula and competitive grant programs representing more than $80 billion in economic investment through leveraging $10.7 billion in Capital Investment Grant program funding which supported forty-one infrastructure projects across nineteen states. 

She led FTA’s unprecedented response to the COVID-19 pandemic providing more than $39 billion in emergency funding - $25 billion in CARES Act funding and $14 billion in CRRSA Act funding. Ms. Williams also led the effort to supply fourteen million facial coverings to transit workers and riders, and regulatory and administrative relief to thousands of transit agencies across the country to keep America and Americans moving. 

Ms. Williams is an active member of WTS International serving on the Legislative Committee. She has earned numerous Superior Service Awards and Secretarial Awards across her federal career including being named one of the Women Who Move the Nation by the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials in 2018. 

She currently serves on multiple Advisory Boards within the transportation industry. She is active in the Catholic Church, has two adult children, and lives in Annapolis, Maryland.