Sally Jewell officially became the 51st interior secretary on Friday, taking the oath at noon from retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor in the Supreme Court's West Conference Room, one of two formal ceremonial conference rooms at the court.
Ms. Jewell was sworn in on a family Bible, which was held by Hilary Tompkins, a member of the Navajo Nation and the first American Indian to hold the position of interior solicitor.
Ms. Jewell, the former chief executive of Recreation Equipment Incorporated in Seattle, succeeds Ken Salazar, a former Democratic senator from Colorado who led the department from the first days of the Obama administration. Mr. Salazar is returning to his home state to practice law and, perhaps, resume his political career.
Ms. Jewell, 57, takes over an agency with more than 70,000 employees and responsibility for 20 percent of the nation's territory.
She was born in England but has lived most of her life in the Pacific Northwest, where she was known as an indefatigable climber, hiker, biker and kayaker. She worked as a petroleum engineer and banker before joining REI in 2000. She became chief executive in 2005.
The Senate approved her nomination on Wednesday on a vote of 87 to 11.
At the Interior Department, she will face a number of short-term challenges, including issuing long-awaited regulations on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, for natural gas on public lands. She also will decide on several pending endangered species issues and on the future of offshore drilling in the Alaskan Arctic and elsewhere.
She starts her new job on Monday.
