Iezzoni, a professor and researcher at the Mongan Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital, focuses her research on improving the lives and health outcomes for adults with disabilities.
“Our administration is committed to ensuring that our state’s transportation system is safe, reliable and accessible for all,” Healey said in a statement Wednesday, noting that the hire of Harvard Medical School professor Lisa Iezzoni “will bring a critical perspective to this board that will help us ensure that our transportation system is accessible for people with disabilities.”
Governor Maura Healey on Wednesday appointed four new members to the state Department of Transportation’s board of directors, including a member of the disability community — a first in the board’s history.
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She has degrees from Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health, and has served on various advisory boards including at the National Institutes of Health and the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services.
Healey on Wednesday also appointed Thomas M. McGee, Richard Dimino, and Ilyas Bhatti to serve on the board.
McGee is the former mayor of Lynn and former Senate chair of the legislature’s transportation committee. In April, Healey appointed McGee to the MBTA Board of Directors.
Dimino, Boston’s former Commissioner of Transportation, currently serves as President Emeritus of Boston nonprofit A Better City. While he worked for the City of Boston, he represented the city on MBTA advisory boards and committees and developed infrastructure projects and policies. He also served as the chair of an interagency task force centered on the “Big Dig,” widely regarded as one of the most challenging highway projects in US history. Dimino served on Healey’s pre-election transition team.
Bhatti is an professor in the Department of Construction Management at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston, and managed the consulting engineering firm of The Bhatti Group, Inc.
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The board is comprised of 11 members who are each required to fulfill a specific criteria, and serves as the governing authority for MassDOT.
The department oversees various state agencies, including the Registry of Motor Vehicles and the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority, which operates most public transportation services in Greater Boston.
Iezzoni will represent the MBTA riders, McGee will represent experience in public-private finance and transportation planning and policy, Dimino also represents public-private finance, and Bhatti will represent experience in civil engineering.
Other members include Joe Beggan, Timothy King, Quincy Mayor Tom Koch, Dean Mazzarella, and Vanessa Otero.
Transportation Secretary Gina Fiandaca serves as the board’s chair.
This a breaking news story that will be updated.
Samantha J. Gross can be reached at samantha.gross@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @samanthajgross.