The chief of staff to an area state lawmaker has been approved as the new executive director for the Dirksen Congressional Center in Pekin.
Tiffany White (pictured) has been approved by the Center’s board to replace Frank Mackaman, who will retire in 2020. White is currently chief of staff to Republican State Representative Mike Unes of East Peoria. Her first day as executive director will be Sept. 1.
Mackamin will be remain at the Center as historian and archivist, a position that will also be assumed by White at a later date.
White is a 2005 graduate of Pekin Community High School and a 2008 graduate of the University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign. Her career began in the congressional office that has been served by the same public officials White will now oversee.
White spent five years as a staff member in the 18th District Congressional Office before leaving to accept the role as executive director of Pekin Main Street. She has served as Unes’ chief of staff since 2015.
“The Dirksen Congressional Center represents many sources of my pride for our local community,” White said in a news release, “and I am so humbled to have been asked to assume this role. Helping to maintain the legagy of the Center – along with the legacy of great public servants whose influence is kept alive by the Center’s mission – will undoubtedly be one of the highest privileges of my life and career. I could not possibly be more enthused about this opportunity, and I am anxious to dedicate myself to this work.”
The Dirksen Congressional Center was established in 1975. It is named for Everett McKinley Dirksen, who served in the U.S. House of Representatives, as Minority Leader of the U.S. Senate, and who was instrumental in the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
