Missouri Public Service Commissioner Maida Coleman is the new chairwoman of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners' Committee on Consumer Affairs.
A state news release Friday said her appointment was made by NARUC President John W. Betkoski III. In making the appointment, he told Coleman: "Your energetic leadership of this committee is important to the cause of strengthening effective public regulation."
Gov. Jay Nixon appointed Coleman, a former state lawmaker from St. Louis, to the PSC beginning Aug. 10, 2015, and she was confirmed unanimously by the Missouri Senate on Jan. 21, 2016.
She served in the Legislature from 2001-09, and was the first African American woman in state history to serve as the Senate's Minority Leader.
After her legislative service, Coleman was director of the Nixon Administration's Office of Community Engagement, and previously served as the Missouri Workforce Investment Board's executive director in the state Economic Development Department.
She also held a leadership role at the Missouri Department of Labor. Before starting her legislative career in the Missouri House, Coleman held management level positions for Missouri's secretary of state and for the St. Louis Housing Authority. She is a former member of the "Heat-Up/Cool-Down St. Louis" board of directors. In the early 1980s, she worked in the PSC's transportation division.