D. Kirk Shaffer was appointed FAA's Associate Administrator for Airports, effective January 7, 2007.
Shaffer brings to the agency an extensive background in both aviation and government. He served, variously, as Executive Assistant to the President, Director of Properties, and General Counsel to the Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority from 1986 to 2003. In those capacities, he worked on a wide range of environmental, construction, and airport funding issues, especially those related to FAA's Airport Improvement Program and the National Environmental Policy Act.
He co-authored the federal Noise Reduction Reimbursement Act of 1989, P.L. 101-71 and managed the nation's second airport revenue bond issue secured by passenger facility charges. Among his other responsibilities at the airport authority were development of all federally-funded construction bid documentation; defense of all environmental, zoning, and construction litigation in federal and state trial and appellate courts against over $500 million dollars in airport development projects; and prosecution of all eminent domain actions required for airport expansion. Shaffer was a member of the senior management team that, in close coordination with FAA, accelerated by several years the construction of a parallel air carrier runway critical to hub airport operations. During this process, he authored the nation's first FAA letter of intent for a federally funded construction project.
From 1997-1999, Shaffer served as Chairman and Vice Chairman of the legal committee for the Airports Council International-North America. He is also a certified member of the American Association of Airport Executives and, like his father, a member of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.
A veteran of the U.S. Army and Ranger, airborne, jumpmaster, and air assault qualified, Shaffer holds a B.S. from the United States Military Academy at West Point, a J.D. from the University of Texas at Austin, and a Master of Laws degree from The Judge Advocate General's School of the US Army. He also is an Eagle Scout and a private pilot.
His wife, Dana, is the Chief of the Wireline Competition Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission and a Member of the Senior Executive Service. Their daughter, Leslie, is a third year law student at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, and their son, Jackson, is a third grader in the Arlington, Virginia public schools working on his Cub Scout badges while playing basketball, violin, chess, and piano.