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Delaware Division of the
Public Advocate

Meet the Staff



Ruth Ann Price – Public Advocate


Ruth Ann Price has been the Deputy Public Advocate for the State of Delaware since January 2012.  Her primary responsibilities at the Division of the Public Advocate (“the Division”) include representing the State of Delaware’s interests at PJM and public outreach for the Division.  In 2005, Ms. Price started her career in public service at the Delaware Public Service Commission where she was the junior hearing examiner and, thereafter, the senior hearing examiner presiding over all administrative cases involving rates and the terms and conditions of service offered by the State’s electricity, natural gas, water, wastewater, cable and telecommunications companies.  She also prepared recommended opinions for the Delaware Public Service Commission as well as conducted settlement and mediation conferences.

From 1992 until 2005, Ms. Price was the managing partner of her own law firm in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where her practice concentrated on public utilities law, commercial and tort defense litigation for the Philadelphia Gas Works, Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority and the City of Philadelphia Workers’ Compensation Division and other City agencies. She also represented non-governmental clients, such as Pepsi Bottling Group and several construction companies.  

Ms. Price began her public utilities work on the day after the 1984 AT&T divestiture. On January 2, 1984, she joined the corporate legal staff of Michigan Bell Telephone Company, in Detroit, Michigan, then a subsidiary of Ameritech. Her work included SEC matters, federal, state and local tax issues, and procurement.  Returning to the east coast in the spring of 1985, Ms. Price worked as a staff attorney for Bell of Pennsylvania (BPA) where she defended the Company before the Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission in rate and complaint cases throughout the Commonwealth.  Concurrently with her work at BPA, she represented Diamond State Telephone Company in rate cases before the Delaware Public Service.  She has also been an adjunct professor at Rutgers Law School in Camden, New Jersey teaching regulated industries.  Before beginning her public utilities work, Ms. Price worked at the Philadelphia law firm of White & Williams in the commercial litigation department representing insurance companies and private clients in matters relating to antitrust, insurance defense and coverage issues as well as errors and omissions policies for accountants and insurance brokers.

After graduating from George Washington University’s National Law Center, she was a law clerk for the Honorable Julia Cooper Mack of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. Thereafter, she was a law clerk for two years for the Honorable Clifford Scott Green of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.  A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Ms. Price earned a B.A. in English literature and Political Science in 1974. She was the winner of the Althea K. Hottel Award, the highest award given to a senior woman. The Hottel Award was established to honor “intellectual competence, commitment to ideals and principles, and loyalty to the University of Pennsylvania.”

She was also the Sol Feinstein Award winner, an award celebrating constructive social change. As a Thouron Scholar from the University of Pennsylvania, Ms. Price did her graduate work in English literature at Girton College, Cambridge University in Cambridge, England earning a second B.A. in 1976 and a Master’s Degree in 1977. Ms. Price is a graduate of The Shipley School in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania where she attended as A Better Chance (ABC) Program scholar. ABC is a scholarship organization founded in 1963 whose mission is to “increase substantially the number of well-educated young people of color who are capable of assuming positions of responsibility and leadership in American society.”

Ms. Price is a widow who has four adult children and two grandchildren. She grew up in Richmond, Virginia.

The role of the Public Advocate is outlined in 29 Del. C., Section 8716

Contact Information:

29 S. State Street, Dover, DE 19901

Phone: (302) 241-2550 (W)
(302) 388-1100 (C)

Email Ruth

Meet the Team:


Andrea Maucher – Public Utilities Analyst – Email Andrea

Charmaine Johnson – Complaints Investigator – Email Charmaine

Kishon Johnson – Exempt Secretary – Email Kishon


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