The director of the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum in Dallas has been tapped as the new director of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield.
Alan C. Lowe, who has served as director of the Bush library since 2009, was named to the Springfield post by Gov. Bruce Rauner.
The administration said Friday that Lowe, whose appointment is subject to confirmation by the Illinois Senate, will start the job July 11. He will be paid $150,000 a year.
Lowe could not be reached for comment.
As director of the Bush library and museum, Lowe oversees all operations of the facility, including education, public programs and administration, the Rauner administration said.
The National Archives, which administers the Bush library and museum, issued a statement Friday saying that Lowe oversaw all aspects of the Bush facility from development, design and construction through to operating the facility since it opened in 2013.
Before going to the Bush library and museum, Lowe helped create and oversee the Howard Baker Center for Public Policy at the University of Tennessee. He was also a senior management analyst at the Office of Presidential Libraries for 10 years.
Lowe also has experience working at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library in New York and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California.
Lowe has a bachelor’s and master’s degree in history from the University of Kentucky.
Lowe replaces Eileen Mackevich, who resigned in October. She left a week after Rauner appointed four new members to the board of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, which governs the library and museum.
In an interview with The State Journal-Register after she announced her resignation, Mackevich said that Rauner “suggested he wanted to go in a different direction.”
Mackevich often clashed with former IHPA director Amy Martin, who was dismissed by the board in November, about two weeks after Mackevich resigned.
Read more at The State Journal-Register.
