HARRISBURG (June 6, 2019) — The Pennsylvania Bar Association (PBA) Public Utility Law Section presented its Christianson Award to Cheryl Walker Davis on May 30 at the Public Utility Law Conference in Harrisburg. Walker Davis retired from her post as director of Office of Special Assistants, Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) in 2018 after more than 30 years of service.
The Christianson Award is named in honor of Robert A. Christianson, a former chief administrative law judge for the PUC, and recognizes an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the development, improvement and advancement of the profession of public utility law.
Walker Davis has devoted the majority of her career to the regulation of electric, gas, telephone, water and transportation companies. After starting out as an attorney at the South Carolina Public Service Commission, she joined the Pennsylvania PUC in 1983, where she directed the legal and technical staff responsible for advising the commission on all aspects of utility regulation, including the establishment and restructuring of competitive markets for electric, natural gas, transportation and telephone companies; energy efficiency and conservation; rates and ratemaking; rate of return; service practices; tariff changes; affiliated interest agreements; securities filings; mergers and acquisitions; billing disputes; and administrative and regulatory process.
In addition to her many years of leadership, Walker Davis has made a lasting impact on the commission through the analysis of thousands of cases and advisement of dozens of commissioners and their staffs during her tenure. She was involved in the preparation oversight of many landmark cases, such as the Natural Gas Choice and Competition Act of 1999, the impact of the shale gas industry on regulated public utilities, the Tax Act of 1986, the divestiture of the Bell Operating Companies, and the unbundling and pricing of Verizon’s network elements, just to name a few.
Walker Davis has lectured both nationally and internationally on public utility issues. She has traveled to more than 40 states and has served as a member of delegations to Africa, Asia, Europe and South America. For more than 20 years, Walker Davis has been instrumental in organizing annual educational conferences for regulatory attorneys. Taking an active role in various regulatory organizations, she is president of the Harrisburg chapter of the American Association of Blacks in Energy, which she co-founded in 2017. Walker Davis has served two terms as president of the National Conference of Regulatory Attorneys and three terms as chair of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners Staff Subcommittee on Law and as a former liaison to its Staff Subcommittee on International Relations. She is also a member of the National Regulatory Research Institute’s Research Advisory Committee.
Throughout her career, Walker Davis has hosted and mentored college students through job shadowing opportunities in legal and technical areas of public utility regulation. She has previously held various offices with the St. Stephen’s School board of directors; has served on numerous Gettysburg College boards, task forces and commissions; has held various offices with the local chapters of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated; and has received numerous awards for service.
Walker Davis received a B.A. from Gettysburg College and a J.D. from the University of South Carolina School of Law.
Founded in 1895, the Pennsylvania Bar Association strives to promote justice, professional excellence and respect for the law; improve public understanding of the legal system; facilitate access of legal services; and serve the lawyer members of the state’s largest organized bar association.