2026 Member Lunch June 9: IDOT Project Updates with Gia Biagi, Secretary of Transportation

Gia Biagi was appointed secretary of the Illinois Department of Transportation by Gov. JB Pritzker on Dec. 10, 2024. Biagi brings to the agency decades of experience in urban planning, transportation, public policy, infrastructure and operations. 

Biagi’s career spans both private practice and public service and has established her as a visionary leader in planning, policy and infrastructure management. From 2019 to 2023, she served as commissioner of Chicago’s Department of Transportation, where she delivered hundreds of innovative transportation projects citywide and created a nation-leading strategic plan focused on equitable, safe and sustainable mobility, along with transformational neighborhood investments. 

She has held various other private and public roles across the fields of housing, parks and transportation throughout her career of more than two decades. 

Prior to her appointment to IDOT, she provided executive leadership at Studio Gang, an international, award-winning architecture and urban design firm. There, she led a practice that specialized in urban design, land-use planning, community engagement, and implementation strategy for public and private-sector clients across a range of cities and project types, including housing, waterfronts, aviation, parks, roadways, and public and private buildings and sites.

Biagi recently served on the Shared-Use Mobility Center’s board of directors and was previously appointed secretary of the National Association of City Transportation Officials. She served on the Board of Trustees for the Chicago Architecture Center, is a member of the advisory board of the Women’s Transportation Seminar and is a member of Lambda Alpha International, an honorary society for the study of land economics. She was also recently named a visiting fellow at the Clinton School of Public Service at the University of Arkansas.

Biagi earned her Master of Urban Planning and Policy from the University of Illinois at Chicago and holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Michigan.