SPRINGFIELD – United States District Judge Michael McCuskey has been appointed to the board of trustees of Illinois State University.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich made the appointment Sept. 29. McCuskey, a federal judge who presides in Urbana, will serve on the seven-member board until January 2011. His first meeting will be in Normal on Friday.

A native of Sparland in central Illinois, McCuskey graduated from Sparland High School in 1966. He received his bachelor's degree from ISU in 1970 and an honorary doctorate from ISU in 2003. McCuskey received his law degree from Saint Louis University School of Law in 1975.

McCuskey was a partner in a Lacon law firm from 1975 to 1988 and also served as Marshall County public defender from 1976 to 1988.

He was elected a circuit judge in the 10th Judicial Circuit in 1988 and was assigned to hear felonies in Peoria.

McCuskey was elected to the 3rd District Appellate Court in Ottawa in 1990 and served in that position until his appointment as a federal judge in May 1998.

McCuskey, 57, has just begun a seven-year term as the chief judge for the Central District of Illinois.

He and his wife, Brenda, and their son, Ryan, live in Champaign.