(Photo By Flickr User Washington State Dept of Transportation)

Former Illinois congressman and U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has been named chairman of the board of directors of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced LaHood’s appointment earlier this week.

According to WGEM-TV & The Associated Press, LaHood, a Peoria, IL Republican, represented the 18th Congressional District from 1995 to 2009. The district includes the largest portion of the district Lincoln represented in Congress. He was President Barack Obama’s transportation secretary from 2009 to 2013.

Pritzker also named librarian and conservator Joan Brodsky as the museum board’s historic preservation expert. She is on the Board of Visitors of the Syracuse University Library and Chicago’s Newberry Library board.

Other appointments to the board made this week include, Kathryn Harris, formerly of the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine and president of the Sangamon County Historical Society Board, and Chicago History Museum president Gary T. Johnson.