Chicago Transit Authority chief of staff Nora Leerhsen was named acting president of the agency Wednesday as CTA President Dorval Carter Jr. prepares to leave the post.
Leerhsen will assume the role on Jan. 31, when Carter will resign from his nearly 10 years at the helm of the CTA. As acting president, Leerhsen will run the CTA until Mayor Brandon Johnson nominates a replacement, who must then be approved by the CTA’s board.
Carter, in a speech at CTA’s board meeting Wednesday, discussed his plans to become president and CEO of Saint Anthony Hospital.
“As many of you likely know, while I’m retiring from public transit, I am not at the end of my professional journey. Instead, I will soon be taking a new path as the president and chief executive officer of St Anthony Hospital on the West Side of the city,” Carter said.
“I have a long relationship with Saint Anthony, including a tenure as board chair. And will follow in the footsteps of my father, who was a doctor at the hospital for 40 years and served for 10 years as chair of the obstetrics and gynecology department.”
Carter on Monday announced he would resign as CTA president at the end of the month. The move followed over a year of critics prodding Carter to leave his post. Nearly half the City Council had demanded Carter’s ouster.
The CTA’s $376,060-a-year president had to be forced to testify before the Council after repeatedly sending underlings to answer questions about ghost buses and other service and safety issues.
Gov. JB Pritzker also wanted a change in leadership, as did key lawmakers whose support is critical if the CTA is to have any chance of getting new money from Springfield to avoid a mass transit funding crisis in 2026.
Johnson campaigned on a promise to overhaul the CTA, but he became one of Carter’s top defenders after taking office. One of Carter’s key strengths was his ability to obtain large federal grants for construction projects. One of Carter’s last acts, completed last week, was securing $1.9 billion in federal grants to begin the Red Line extension to 130th Street.