Carmen E. Turner

Carmen E. Turner (c. 1930-31 - April 11, 1992) was the Under Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution from 1990 until her death in 1992 and General Manager of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority from 1983 to 1990. She was the first African-American woman to lead a major transit agency.^[1]

Biography

Turner was born in Teaneck, N.J., grew up in Washington and in 1968 graduated from Howard University. She started government service as a typist and rose to acting director of civil rights at the United States Transportation Department before moving to the local transit agency in 1977 as chief of administration. She was promoted to general manager in 1983.^[2]

As general manager, she won wide praise for her skill at running and lobbying for Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Agency, which was then the nation's second-largest rail and fourth-largest bus transit system. It 1988, the system was named the nation's best by the American Public Transit Association.

Throughout Turner's tenure as General Manager, Metrorail expanded 40 percent, growing from 68 km (42 miles) of track with 47 stations to 117 km (73 miles) of track with 63 stations, while annual ridership grew to 70 million passengers. The highlight of her Metro career came in 1990 when Congress authorized $1.3 billion for completing the 166 km (103 miles) Metrorail system.^[3]

She won wide praise for her skill at running and lobbying for the transit system, which in 1988 was named the nation's best by the American Public Transit Association.

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