Building on a strong team of diverse experts in their fields, Governor JB Pritzker announced the following appointment in his administration:
CHICAGO TRANSIT BOARD
Gloria Chevere will serve on the Chicago Transit Board.* Chevere has served as a Judge in the Circuit Court of Cook County for over 10 years. Over her 38-year career, she has also served as Deputy Director of the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) and Deputy Commissioner of Planning and Development with City of Chicago. As Deputy Executive Director of the CTA, Chevere was responsible for the implementation and expansion of the CTA’s minority procurement policies and expansion of the amount and percentage of business contracted and subcontracted to minority and women-owned firms. She also participated in contract negotiations with the Amalgamated Transit Union Locals 241 and 308.
NEW HARMONY BRIDGE AUTHORITY
Michael Egbert will serve on the New Harmony Bridge Authority.* For the past 26 years, Egbert has served as Executive Director of the Office of Opportunities for Access, a center for independent living in Mount Vernon. In this role, he overlooked the approval of policies, budgets, and new hires for the non-profit, which also has satellite offices in Carmi and Effingham. He has concurrently served as a board member of the Illinois Network of Centers for Independent Living and also served as its president. Egbert also has been serving as treasurer of the White County Bridge Commission for the past 23 years and also served on the boards of the Southern 14 Workforce Investment Board, Illinois TechConnect, the Private Industry Council and Egyptian Public and Mental Health Department. Egbert received his Bachelor’s in business and accounting from Illinois State University.
Ellen Schanzle-Haskins will serve on the New Harmony Bridge Authority.* Haskins currently serves as the General Counsel of the Midwest Region of the Laborers’ International Union of North America, overseeing 10 states. Haskins has been an attorney for 44 years, including 19 years as a prosecutor for the U.S. Attorney and the Illinois Attorney General. Haskins has also served as Chief Counsel to the Illinois Department of Transportation from 2003 to 2013, where she was involved in the legal issues regarding the reconstruction and reopening of the McKinley Bridge and the East St. Louis Martin Luther King Bridge as well as the new construction of the $654 million Stan Musial Veteran’s Memorial Bridge on I-70 in 2013. She attended Eastern Illinois University and the charter class of Southern Illinois University School of Law.
Sara Brown will serve on the New Harmony Bridge Authority.* Brown is a small business owner from Carmi, Illinois. She owns and operates her own coffee shop, which she also managed of for nine years before taking ownership. Brown has also served as manager of the Historic New Harmony program at the University of Southern Indiana for six years. Brown earned her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Illinois.
SECURE CHOICE SAVING BOARD
Jay Rowell will serve on the Illinois Secure Choice Savings Board.* Rowell is the Executive Director of the HIRE360, a partnership of the United Way, the Chicago area’s largest developers and contractors as well as building trades unions to recruit, train, and place community residents in service, manufacturing, and construction industry positions. Prior to that, Rowell was the Deputy Treasurer for Illinois Treasurer Michael Frerichs, where he oversaw the state’s $31 billion portfolio. In that role, he dramatically increased minority- and women-owned firms’ participation in state investments and re-envisioned the Illinois 529 College Savings programs, earning Morningstar’s highest ratings. Before joining the Treasurer’s office, Rowell was the Director of the Illinois Department of Employment Security where he created a no-cost HR recruiting program and launched a new job board. Rowell earned his law degree from Loyola University Chicago School of Law and a bachelor’s in Public Communication at American University in Washington D.C.
STATE MINING BOARD
John Duty will continue to serve on the State Mining Board.* A 37-year veteran of the mining industry, Duty currently serves as a supervisor at Mach Mining. Throughout his career, Duty has held all his mining papers and served on both the Miners’ Examining Board and the State Mining Board. He is also a former member of the Progressive Mine Workers of America and the Holmes Safety Association.
Robert Eggerman will serve on the State Mining Board.* Eggerman is a retired coal miner of 38 years and a U.S. Army Veteran. In 1975, he began his 20-year, union coal mining experience at Peabody Coal #10 in Pawnee, following in the footsteps of his father. He then attended and graduated from Lincoln Land Community College with an HVAC Certificate and worked at ADM for almost 4 years. Thereafter, he returned to coal mining as a Mine Supervisor for 8 years at Freeman United Crown II Mine in Virden. Eggerman later became employed as a Mine Supervisor at Tri County Coal, Farmersville, where he worked until taking a position as a State Mine Inspector in 2012 at the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Office of Mines and Minerals.
Stephen Willis will continue to serve on the State Mining Board.* Willis became a member of the UMWA and was hired by the Old ben Coal Company in 1972. Willis served as safety director and then worked as an hourly employee at Kerr McGee/American Coal for the next 12 years. In 2003, Willis was asked to become the safety director of one of the mine portals and by 2007 he became the safety manager of all 3 underground mines and the prep plant. From 2011 to 2013, he was the mine superintendent at the New Future and New Era mine. In 2014, he became a regional corporate safety director for Murray Energy, overseeing mines in Illinois, Kentucky and Utah, where he remained until his retirement in 2016.
* Appointments pending confirmation by the Illinois Senate.
