On March 19, Public Utility Commission Chairman Gladys Brown Dutrieuille was honored last evening by the Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus with the Crystal Bird Fauset Leadership Award recognizing her long career of distinguished leadership in state government.

As one of three honorees, Chairman Dutrieuille was recognized by the PLBC during a virtual event held in conjunction with Women’s History Month. 

The Crystal Bird Fauset Leadership Award celebrates the first Black woman elected to serve in the Pennsylvania General Assembly (or elected to any state legislature) and recognizes current and former Black women leaders in Pennsylvania state government. 

In her acceptance video, Chairman Dutrieuille thanked the PLBC and specifically highlighted her past mentoring experiences as an integral part of her successful career path.

“Those are the types of things I love doing in our community - to be able to educate individuals to have an understanding of what they can do to educate themselves, but also to pass that information along the way,” Chairman Dutrieuille said.  “It is with this that I truly understand what my mother said to me: ‘to whom much is given, much is required.’”

The other honorees for this year’s inaugural PLBC leadership award are former state Sen. LeAnna Washington and former state Rep. Rosita Youngblood.

Chairman Dutrieuille is now serving her second term as a Commissioner for the Public Utility Commission.  She began her service at the PUC in 2013 and was first appointed as Chairman of the Commission in 2015. On April 15, 2019, Gov. Tom Wolf reappointed her as Chairman.

In June 2020, Chairman Dutrieuille was appointed as Mid-Atlantic Conference of Regulatory Utilities Commissioners (MACRUC) Second Vice President.

She is also a member of the recently-created National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) Task Force on Emergency Preparedness, Recovery and Resiliency, leading its Subcommittee on Black Sky, in addition to leading the NARUC Committee on Critical Infrastructure.

Prior to joining the PUC, Chairman Dutrieuille served as counsel to the Senate Democratic Leader where she worked on many of the major utility issues that have been considered by the General Assembly in the last two decades including all of the major deregulation bills for telecommunications, electricity and natural gas; Act 201 of 2004, which added Chapter 14 to the Public Utility Code and changed the handling of consumer terminations and reconnections; Act 129 of 2008, which addressed energy efficiency and procurement; and Act 11 of 2012, which expanded use of the distribution system improvement charge.

Before her work with the Senate, Chairman Dutrieuille 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 Honorable Paul A. Simmons, Judge for the U.S. District Court, Western District of Pennsylvania.

A native of Middletown, Pa., Chairman Dutrieuille earned her bachelor’s and juris doctorate degrees from the University of Pittsburgh and is a member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association.

She also is a member of the Dauphin County Bar Association, the James S. Bowman Inns of Court and the Keystone Bar Association, and serves on the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank Governance Committee following three terms on that organization’s Board of Directors.

She is an active member at Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Harrisburg. She is also an active member in Epsilon Sigma Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. and the Harrisburg Chapter of AABE (American Association of Blacks in Energy).

[Posted: March 19, 2021]

3/22/2021