Gladys Brown Dutrieuille

A national authority in the public utility industry, Gladys is a former Commissioner and Chairman of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PAPUC) and for more than thirty years has helped to shape the public utility landscape in the Commonwealth and across the country. Gladys is immediate past President of the Mid-Atlantic Conference of Regulatory Utilities Commissioner (MACRUC) and was appointed to the Board of Directors of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC), where she chaired the NARUC Critical Infrastructure Committee and, as a member of the NARUC Telecommunications Committee, sponsored a resolution urging the FCC to retain its $2.3 billion federal budget for broadband deployment across the country. The resolution was unanimously adopted by NARUC’s Board of Directors.

A two-term PAPUC Commissioner, Gladys began her tenure at the PAPUC in 2013 and was first appointed Chairman of the Commission in 2015 by Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett. Gov. Tom Wolf nominated her for a second term in 2018 and reappointed her as Chairman in 2019, placing her as the longest-serving female and African American Chairman in the Commission’s history. Across her leadership at PAPUC, Gladys advanced transformative efforts in Pennsylvania’s energy generation, use and distribution, including the implementation of key consumer assistance programs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prior to her career at the PAPUC, Gladys served the Pennsylvania Senate for 22 years. As a former Deputy Chief Counsel for the Senate Democratic Leader, she worked on major utility issues considered by the General Assembly, including all of the major deregulation bills for telecommunications, electricity and natural gas; the handling of consumer terminations and reconnections; energy efficiency and procurement updates; and the expansion of distribution system improvements.

Before working with the Senate, Gladys served as an assistant counsel for the Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs in the Pennsylvania Department of State and as a clerk for the late Hon. Paul A. Simmons, Judge for the U.S. District Court of the Western District of Pennsylvania.

Affiliations

• National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC), Board of Directors
  • Telecommunications Committee
  • Critical Infrastructure Committee
  • Emergency Preparedness, Recovery and Resiliency Task Force
  • Federal-State Task Force on Electric Transmission
• Mid-Atlantic Conference of Regulatory Utilities Commissioners (MACRUC), Immediate Past President
• Pennsylvania Bar Association
  • Government Lawyers Committee
  • Minority Bar Committee
  • Statutory Law Committee
• Dauphin County Bar Association
• James S. Bowman American Inns of Court
• Keystone Bar Association
• Central Pennsylvania Food Bank, Board of Directors
  • Governance Committee
  • Nominations Committee
• American Association of Blacks in Energy
  • Harrisburg Chapter

Recognition

Presented with the Christianson Award by the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Public Utility Law Section in June 2023, Gladys was honored for her outstanding contributions to the improvement and advancement of the profession of public utility law. She was also recognized by City & State PA as among the “2024 Black Trailblazers” for her dedication to public service and her legacy in shaping energy and public utility policy across Pennsylvania.

Education

• University of Pittsburgh School of Law, J.D.
• University of Pittsburgh, B.A.