Home > About DOT > Biographies of Key Officials > Mary N. Whigham Jones

Last updated: 2/10/2009

Since January 1999, as Deputy Director, Departmental Office of Civil Rights, Ms. Jones provides senior leadership and support to the Secretary of Transportation on Department of Transportation (DOT) civil rights programs.  She provides policy guidance and oversight to the several operating administrations, of which DOT is comprised, on all programs related to Disadvantaged Business Enterprise, Title VI and VII of the Civil Rights Act, Rehabilitation Act, Americans with Disabilities Act, Age Discrimination Act, Environmental Justice, White House Initiatives on Minority Serving Institutions, and other civil rights related Executive Orders.

Previously, Ms. Jones served as the Deputy Assistant Administrator for Civil Rights at the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Office of Civil Rights.  She joined that office in April 1996.  There she provided leadership, policy direction, and technical assistance with regard to internal and external civil rights programs, and the agency’s effort to promote a model work environment.

Ms. Jones began her Federal career with the FAA Office of Chief Counsel.  In the legal office, she served in several capacities.  As an attorney advisor in the Enforcement & Regulations Division, she had responsibility for numerous rulemaking projects involving airmen and airports, advisory circulars, interpretations of Federal Aviation Regulations, and handled regulatory enforcement actions against airmen before the National Transportation Safety Board.  Further, she served as a legal advisor/trial attorney, and later manager, in the Personnel & Labor Law Branch where she was responsible for employment law litigation before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Merit System Protection Board, the various Federal district courts, as well as appellate litigation before the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.  Between 1993 and 1996, Ms. Jones regularly served as the Acting Assistant Chief Counsel, General Legal Services Division with legal program responsibility for employment law, government ethics, FOIA, and Privacy Act matters.

Ms. Jones received her Juris Doctor degree from Temple University School of Law and her undergraduate degree in Political Science from Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University).  Further, she completed Executive Programs at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.  Ms. Jones is a member of the Pennsylvania and District of Columbia bars.