Mary Anne Carter has been nominated by President Donald Trump to serve as chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, which has survived administration proposals to zero out its funding.
Carter has been serving as acting chair since June, when Jane Chu’s term expired. Chu was appointed by former president Barack Obama.
Carter was the founder of a public affairs and political consulting firm, and was chief policy adviser to Florida Governor Rick Scott, who is seeking a Senate seat. According to her bio, her commitment to the arts stems from her daughter who has faced dyslexia but has found arts as a valuable method of learning.
Carter’s appointment to a four-year term must be confirmed by the Senate. Before she was appointed acting chair, Carter served 18 months as senior deputy chair. She has directed an expansion of the NEA’s Creative Forces program, an art therapy program for U.S. service members recovering from PTSD and traumatic brain injury.
Since he took office, Trump had yet to select a nominee to fill the post permanently. In the past two budget cycles, the White House has proposed zeroing out funding to the NEA, but Congress has rejected those proposals. It recently passed a $155 million appropriation for the 2018-19 fiscal year.