PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Ray LaHood, U.S. secretary of transportation, will deliver the annual Noah Krieger ’93 Memorial Lecture on Wednesday, Feb. 29, 2012, at 4 p.m. in the Salomon Center for Teaching, De Ciccio Family Auditorium. LaHood will discuss “The View from President Obama’s Cabinet.” Sponsored by the Taubman Center for Public Policy, the lecture is free and open to the public.

LaHood is the 16th U.S. secretary of transportation. He served previously for 14 years as the U.S. representative from Illinois’ 18th District. During that time he served on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and then on the House Appropriations Committee. Prior to LaHood’s election to the U.S. House of Representatives, he was chief of staff to House Majority Leader Robert H. Michel and district administrative assistant to U.S. Rep. Thomas Railsback. LaHood also served in the Illinois State Legislature and, before that, as a junior high school teacher. He graduated from Bradley University in Peoria, Ill.

The Krieger Lecture

Noah Krieger ’93 was an outstanding Brown student who earned membership in Phi Beta Kappa on his way to a magna cum laude degree. His academic interests were focused on positive social change and included economics, political science, and public policy. When Krieger died shortly after graduating from Brown, the Krieger family decided to honor his life and celebrate his memory by establishing an annual lecture by a prominent individual who has made distinguished contributions to public service.

Past Krieger lecturers have included Cory Booker, mayor of Newark, N.J.; George Pataki, former New York governor; U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr., of Tennessee; U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel of New York; U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg; and Howard Dean, former governor of Vermont and former Democratic presidential contender.