WASHINGTON-Marsha MacBride, chief of staff to FCC Chairman Michael Powell, said Monday that she will soon leave the Federal Communications Commission to pursue new opportunities.
“Marsha is my most trusted and loyal adviser,” said Powell. “She is an exceptional leader who has worked tirelessly to make the FCC more efficient and more responsive to the needs of the American public. She is a friend, and I will sorely miss her as we forge ahead with the FCC’s work.”
MacBride had been a longtime FCC employee, including a stint in Powell’s office when he was a commissioner, who left to join The Walt Disney Co. But Powell lured her back to run the commission when he became chairman in January 2001. She also led the FCC’s Homeland Security Policy Council-a follow-on to her role as executive director of the FCC’s Task Force on Year 2000 Conversion.
She graduated from Douglass College, Rutgers University magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree and received her law degree from the George Washington University School of Law.
MacBride’s departure re-started the seemingly endless speculation that Powell has had enough of the FCC and that he might too leave, but he squelched those rumors Monday at the Progress & Freedom Foundation conference in Aspen, Colo. “I’m going to stick around,” he said.
RCR Reporter Dan Meyer contributed to this report from Aspen, Colo.
