Gov. Phil Murphy said Tuesday he's set to become the first governor in New Jersey history with a Cabinet in which the majority of members are female.
The Democratic governor made the declaration as he announced he's nominating three more women to run state agencies -- those overseeing higher education, motor vehicles, and civil service.
"We have a lot of firsts in this cabinet, but this is one I'm especially proud of," Murphy said during a news conference at Eberhardt Hall at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark. "And not just in the number of women but overall in the people we have asked and who have accepted to serve."
Murphy, who took office last month, also said he's "confident" his cabinet will be the most diverse in the United States.
The three new picks are:
* Zakiya Smith Ellis, a former education policy advisor in President Barack Obama's administration, for secretary of higher education.
* B. Sue Fulton, a military veteran named to the U.S. Military Academy's Board of Visitors by Obama, for chair and chief administrator of the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission.
* Deirdre Webster Cobb, a state treasury official, for chair and CEO of the state Civil Service Commission, which oversees hiring of thousands of government workers.
Eleven of the nominees for Murphy's 21 Cabinet posts are women and nine are men. A governor's Cabinet consists of the officials who lead state agencies, such as the health and treasury departments.
Murphy has yet to nominate a State Police superintentent, but sources told NJ Advance Media that the current acting commissioner, Patrick Callahan, will be announced as his pick sometime this week.
Murphy has made diversity a major theme of his Cabinet. He also nominated the nation's first Sikh state attorney general and the first minority to lead the New Jersey National Guard.
The governor said Tuesday that New Jersey is "by many measures" the most diverse state in the nation and that he promised to "put a team on the field" that would "reflect that diversity."
A survey from WalletHub last year showed New Jersey is the fourth most diverse state in the U.S.
There's no immediate metric to determine if Murphy's cabinet will be the nation's most diverse. But the governor said his staff has researched the topic and is "99.9 percent sure."
Murphy also stressed that "this is not just for the sake of being diverse."
"The point is: At the end of the day, you want leadership that gets better results for all of us in the state, not just some of us," he said.
All three of Murphy's new nominees still need to be confirmed by the state Senate, as do many of the governor's previous picks.
The nominees who have not been confirmed yet have been serving in an acting capacity.
Gov. Phil Murphy holds a news conference Tuesday at NJIT in Newark.
Murphy said Tuesday he's not concerned about the pace of confirmations in the Senate, which is controlled by Democrats but run by state Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, who so far has had a rocky relationship with the new governor.
"Our conversations behind the scenes are very productive," Murphy said. "And by comparison (to previous administrations), it's going along just fine."
"It's not like we're being kept back from pursuing what we want to pursue in government," he added.
Sweeney said Tuesday that the remaining nominees will receive confirmation hearings soon.
Smith Ellis, the higher education nominee -- who is black -- is currently the director of finance and federal policy at the Lumina Foundation. She previously served on the White House Domestic Policy Council as the senior policy advisor for education under Obama.
Murphy said Smith Ellis will help make college more affordable in the state and push for his goal of instituting free community college here.
"Now more than ever, we need strong colleges and university to help move us into the next era," Smith Ellis said.
Fulton, the motor vehicles nominee, is a retired Army captain and an LGBTQ advocate. She is currently the executive director of the Women in The Service Change Initiative, which aims to help women in the American armed forces, and has also worked for Pfizer Consumer Health.
Murphy said Fulton will help make the state's DMVs more "customer-friendly" and lobby for a system in which residents are automatically registered to vote when they receive a drivers license.
Fulton said she will help "leverage the MVC to expand democracy in our state" and ensure "all New Jerseyans are treated with respect for their time and for their dignity when they come to our offices."
Webster Cobb, the civil service nominee -- who is black -- has spent 28 years as a state government employee. She is currently the Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action officer at the state treasury department, making sure policies against discrimination at work are enforced.
Murphy said Webster Cobb will take over a commission that became "politicized" over the last eight years and will help restore it as an "unbiased voice in labor relations."
"I understand the issues we have faced in the civil service for the last 30 years," Webster Cobb said.
NJ Advance Media staff writer Matt Arco contributed to this report.
Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.