UDC’s Board of Trustees

Mignon L. Clyburn

Mignon L. Clyburn became the first woman head of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in May 2013 when she was appointed Acting Chair following her second appointment to the federal commission by President Barack Obama.

Clyburn began her public service career at the FCC in August of 2009, after spending 11 years as a member of the sixth district on the Public Service Commission (PSC) of South Carolina. She served as its chair from July 2002 through June 2004. Prior to her service on the PSC, Clyburn was the publisher and general manager of The Coastal Times, a Charleston, SC-based weekly newspaper that focused primarily on issues affecting the African American community. She co-owned and operated the family-founded newspaper for 14 years.

A longtime champion of consumers and a defender of the public interest, Commissioner Clyburn was a strong advocate for enhanced accessibility in communications for disabled citizens. She pushed for affordable universal telephone and high-speed internet access, greater broadband deployment and adoption throughout the nation, and transparency in regulation.

Commissioner Clyburn was committed to narrowing persistent digital, communication, and opportunity divides that challenge rural, Native, African American, Latino and low wealth communities. Specifically, she pushed for the modernization of the FCC’s Lifeline Program, which helps defray the cost of voice and broadband services for low-income consumers, fought to promote strong competition across all communications platforms, championed diversity in media ownership, initiated reforms in the egregious Inmate Calling Services regime, emphasized diversity and inclusion in STEM opportunities, and was a strong advocate for preserving a free and open internet, or Net Neutrality.

Clyburn held a fellowship at the Open Society Foundations where she championed efforts to eliminate predatory rates for prison telephone services before she established MLC Strategies, an independent consulting firm, in January of 2019. She graduated from the University of South Carolina in 1984 with a Bachelor’s degree in Banking, Finance and Economics.