Gov. Sam Brownback announced Monday that his press secretary, Eileen Hawley, will retire at the end of the week and that her assistant, Melika Willoughby, will take over the post.

Hawley took the job of press secretary in 2013. Before working for the Brownback administration, she worked in communications at NASA from 1992 to 2008, retiring as director of external communications for the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Her husband, former astronaut Steve Hawley, is a professor of astrophysics and director of engineering physics at the University of Kansas.

Hawley said she has no immediate plans to take another job but intends to continue working with the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, which promotes science and technology education.

“I have had a wonderful time here, and I’m really grateful for the opportunity,” Hawley said of her time in the governor’s office.

Willoughby, who joined the communications office in 2014, is a graduate of Hillsdale College in Michigan. Willoughby is a graduate of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Women’s Leadership Series and was recently named a Publius Fellow through the Claremont Institute: Recovering the American Idea.

During her two years in the governor’s office, Willoughby has been the source of some strident comments, especially in email newsletters sent out to Brownback supporters. In 2015, she described the idea of expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act as “morally reprehensible” because it “creates new entitlements for able-bodied adults without dependents, prioritizing those who choose not to work before intellectually, developmentally, and physically disabled, the frail and elderly, and those struggling with mental health issues.”

On her Twitter profile, Willoughby describes herself as: “Redeemed sinner. Pursuing Jesus. Loving the orphan. American. Deputy Communications Director for @govsambrownback. @Hillsdale alumna.”

“Melika brings a background in communications and political philosophy that enables her to serve well in this position,” Brownback said in a statement announcing the change. “I appreciate her hard work and dedication to our great state.”