Hon. ToNola Brown-Bland

Commissioner, North Carolina Utilities Commission
NRRI Board Term Ends 12/31/17
430 North Salisbury Street, Raleigh, NC 27603
Tel: (919)733-4249
tbrownbland@ncuc.net

Commissioner Brown-Bland was appointed to the North Carolina Utilities Commission by Governor Beverly Eaves Perdue in 2009. She is the Immediate Past President of the Southeastern Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (SEARUC). In addition, she is a member of both the Energy Resources and the Environment Committee and the Critical Infrastructure Committee of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners.

A native North Carolinian, Commissioner Brown-Bland is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and she received her Juris Doctorate from Duke University School of Law.

Commissioner Brown-Bland began her professional career as federal Law Clerk to the Honorable Alexander B. Denson, United States Magistrate Judge for the Eastern District of North Carolina, and thereafter entered private practice in Greensboro, NC with the law firm Hill Evans Jordan & Beatty (formerly Nichols, Caffrey, Hill, Evans & Murrelle). After several years engaging in general civil practice, she became in-house attorney for AT&T Corp. (subsequently Lucent Technologies), where she was promoted to Senior Attorney and primarily supported the company’s federal contracting and related commercial technology licensing and business lines in Greensboro.

Following relocation of much of the Company’s government business, Brown-Bland joined the North Carolina Department of the Secretary of State in 2001, serving as Director of the Business License Information Office and of the Charitable Solicitations Licensing Section. In December 2002, Brown-Bland accepted a position with the North Carolina Utilities Commission as an attorney in the Administrative Division. From 2005 until her appointment to the Commission, she served as Associate General Counsel with the City of Greensboro.

Commissioner Brown-Bland has a history of community and civic service, having served on several boards including the Greensboro Bar Association, the Alamance County Historical Museum, and Western Piedmont Residential Services, a non-profit organization that provided residential service to autistic adults. She also presently serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of her church. She and her husband, André, reside in her native Alamance County.