Susan Ness Biography

	Susan Ness

Susan Ness, Commissioner, Federal Communications Commission, 1919 M St. NW, Washington, DC.

Susan Ness was appointed to the Federal Communications Commission by President Clinton in 1994 to a five-year term expiring June 30, 1999. On July 1, 1999, President Clinton announced his intention to nominate Ness for a second five-year term. She currently chairs the Federal-State Joint Board charged with addressing universal telephone service issues, and served as the FCC's lead representative at the 1995 and 1997 World Radiocommunication Conference in Geneva, Switzerland.

Prior to her appointment, Commissioner Ness was a senior lender to communications companies as a group head and vice president of a regional financial institution. Ness is a lawyer.  She worked as Assistant Counsel to the Committee on Banking, Currency and Housing of the U.S. House of Representatives. She also founded and directed the Judicial Appointments Project of the National Women's Political Caucus.

She currently is a member of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners' Committee on Communications, Leadership Washington, and the Federal Communications Bar Association. Before joining the FCC, she was chair of the Montgomery County, Maryland, Charter Review Commission; vice chair of the Montgomery County Task Force on Community Access Television; and president of the Montgomery County Commission for Women.

Education

• Douglass College, B.A., 1970.
• J.D., cum laude, Boston College Law School.
• M.B.A., The Wharton School of The University of Pennsylvania.