FCC Acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn Makes Staff Announcements

Acting Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Clyburn appointed P. Michele Ellison, currently chief of the Enforcement Bureau, as Chief of Staff. Dave Grimaldi will serve as Chief Counsel and Senior Legal Advisor. She also named legal advisors, including Louis Peraertz for wireless, international, and public safety issues; Rebekah Goodheart for wireline issues; and Sarah Whitesell, currently Deputy Bureau Chief of the Media Bureau, for media issues. Drema Johnson will serve as Confidential Assistant. Dorothy Givens-Terry will serve as Special Assistant. Carol Lott and DeeAnn Smith will serve as Staff Assistants.

• Ellison previously served as Chief of the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau, which is responsible for effectively carrying out the agency’s rules and orders. Previously, Ellison was Acting General Counsel of the agency, where she served as primary legal counsel to the Commission and prior to that, she served as Deputy General Counsel for twelve years. She has counseled the Commissioners and other senior staff on legal issues related to the regulation of the various communications industries, including advising on litigation risks associated with rulemaking and adjudicatory decisions.
• Grimaldi previously served as Chief of Staff in then Commissioner Clyburn’s office after serving as Senior Counsel to House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn (D-SC) on technology and telecommunications, foreign affairs, and financial services regulation. He previously counseled corporate, financial and non-profit clients as Senior Counsel at The Raben Group and served as Legislative Counsel to Representative Ed Towns (D-NY), on the House Commerce Committee and its Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet.
• Peraertz joined then Commissioner Clyburn’s staff in October 2009. Prior to this, he served as Special Counsel in the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau focusing on competition, spectrum allocation, and infrastructure policy issues. Peraertz began his communications career in the Office of General Counsel where, among other things, he represented the Commission in several cases before courts of appeal.
• Goodheart has worked at the Commission since January 2008. She served as Deputy Director of the Technology Transitions Policy Task Force and Associate Chief of the Wireline Competition Bureau. Goodheart previously served as a Senior Policy Advisor for the Omnibus Broadband Initiative, developing many of the recommendations in National Broadband Plan. She also served as Assistant Division Chief in the Industry Analysis Division of the Media Bureau.
• Whitesell previously served as Deputy Bureau Chief of the Media Bureau, where she shaped policies for the media marketplace on broadcast ownership, children's issues, and media transactions, among other matters. Prior to joining the Bureau in 2005, she served as Associate Chief of the Office of Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis, Associate Chief of the Cable Bureau, Acting Legal Advisor to Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein on media issues and Legal Advisor to Commissioner Gloria Tristani for common carrier issues. Whitesell has also served as a member of the Telecommunications Task Force for the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division.
• Johnson is responsible for managing the office as well as the Acting Chairwoman’s personal schedule and travel arrangements. She previously served as Special Assistant to former House Speaker Thomas S. Foley and as Confidential Assistant to former FCC Chairman William Kennard.
• Smith joined the agency in 2009 and will continue to assist in carrying out the mission of the Clyburn office and the agency. She has an extensive administrative background, including experience in the legal and marketing industries.
• Terry is an experienced researcher, interviewer, reporter and entrepreneur. She spent a number of years at Pepco Holdings, Inc., Computing Technologies, on the Hill and in the newsrooms of two daily papers.
• Carol Lott brings more than 26 years of administrative and office management experience to the Acting Chief of Staff as a Special Assistant. The Administrative Management Specialist in the Enforcement Bureau previously served as a senior staff assistant in the Chairman’s office, the Executive Administrator and Office Manager for Temple Strategies and an Executive Assistant in the Office of General Counsel.