Marsha H. Smith

Marsha H. Smith is serving her fourth term on the commission. Her current term expires in January 2015. Smith, a Democrat, served as commission president from November 1991 to April 1995.

Commissioner Smith is the immediate past president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC), serves on the NARUC Board and Executive Committee and is a past chair of NARUC’s Electricity Committee. She is an elected director of the Western Electricity Coordinating Council Board of Directors, co-chair of the National Action Plan for Energy Efficiency and co-chair of the Steering Committee of the Northern Tier Transmission Group. She represents Idaho on the Western Interconnection Regional Advisory Body and chaired the Western Interstate Energy Board’s Committee for Regional Electric Power Cooperation from October 1999 to October 2005. She is a member of the National Council on Electricity Policy Steering Committee, the Harvard Electricity Policy Group, the Idaho State Bar and board president of the Log Cabin Literary Center.

Smith received a bachelor of science degree in biology/education from Idaho State University, a master of library science degree from Brigham Young University and her law degree from the University of Washington.

Before her appointment to the commission, Commissioner Smith served as deputy attorney general in the business regulation/consumer affairs division of the Office of the Idaho Attorney General and as deputy attorney general for the Idaho Public Utilities Commission. She was the commission's director of Policy and External Affairs and chair of the NARUC Staff Subcommittee on Telecommunications.

A fourth-generation Idahoan, Commissioner Smith has two sons.