Speakers
Dusty Johnson, South Dakota Public Utilities Commission, Pierre, S.D.
Dustin "Dusty" Johnson was elected to the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission in November 2004, becoming the youngest utilities commissioner in the nation. He is currently serving as the commission's chairman, a post he also held in 2007. Commissioner Johnson currently serves on the board of directors and the electricity committee of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners and on the Western Interconnection Regional Advisory Board. Prior to joining the PUC, he served South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds as the senior policy advisor for economic development, energy, corrections and transportation issues. He has also worked for local governments in the Kansas City area and as a Truman Fellow for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. Commissioner Johnson has a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of South Dakota, a master's degree in public administration from the University of Kansas, and in 1998 was named a Harry S. Truman Scholar. He is on the board of directors for the W.O. Farber Fund and for Abbott House (a residential treatment center for girls), and served on the South Dakota Attorney General's Open Government Task Force and as an adjunct professor at Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell, S.D.
Learn more about the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission.