Maj. Gen. John W. Peabody was appointed president of the Mississippi River Commission this week by President Barack Obama, the next step to making his leadership of the river planning panel more permanent.

Peabody, 54, had been the commission’s president-designee since November, when he assumed command of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Mississippi Valley Division. He now must wait for Senate confirmation.

The MVD directs the Corps’ water resources development in the Mississippi River basin, which covers 370,000 square miles. The Vicksburg-based division’s districts are headquartered in St. Paul, Minn., Rock Island, Ill., St. Louis, Memphis, Vicksburg and New Orleans.

His appointment follows presidencies of the commission by the two previous division chiefs, Maj. Gen. Michael Walsh and retired Brig. Gen. Robert Crear.

Peabody began his military career in 1980 as a second lieutenant in the Corps and has been mostly a combat engineer, with deployments to Somalia, Kuwait and Iraq. He was division engineer for the Corps’ Great Lakes and Ohio River Division before taking command of MVD.

Peabody is a graduate of the United States Military Academy, the Command and General Staff College and the Army War College with a master’s degree in strategic studies. He also received an MPA from Harvard University and studied as an Olmsted Scholar at El Colegio de Mexico, Mexico City.

His decorations include the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star Medal with “V” device, Purple Heart, Joint Meritorious Service Medal, Army Meritorious Service Medal, Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal, among others.

Created by Congress in 1879, the commission provides general improvement of navigation, flood protection and commerce on the Mississippi River system. The president appoints three officers from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, a representative from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and three civilians, two of whom must be civil engineers.