Director
Debra LaBelle is Director of the Office of Telecommunications at the New York Public Service Commission.
The New York Public Service Commission and New York Department of Public Service oversee a mandate in New York's Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, to cut greenhouse gas emissions forty percent by 2030 and no less than eighty-five percent by 2050 from 1990 levels. All that, while carrying on its regulatory business in the public interest. The five hundred-plus dedicated Staff of the New York Department of Public Service are up to all these tasks. They are the Staff arm of the seven-member New York Public Service Commission.
PUF's Lori Burkhart: How did your background lead to your position as the Director of Office of Telecommunications?
Debra LaBelle: My career has been almost completely at the Commission. I started thirty-three years ago as a junior engineer and worked my way up in the Office of Telecommunications.
I left for a couple of years and went to work in the industry. That gave me a more well-rounded perspective. Then I came back to the Office of Telecom and worked there another five years or so.
I ventured out to other offices within the Department to broaden my knowledge, because telecom seems to get siloed. I worked in what was the Office of Energy Efficiency and Environment, which is now the Office of Markets and Innovation.