Biography

As TURN's (The Utility Reform Network) Executive Director, nationally recognized consumer rights advocate Mark W. Toney, Ph.D brings a wealth of organizing and nonprofit leadership, including 12 years of experience as a utility consumer advocate. Toney served as Executive Director of the Center for Third World Organizing in Oakland from 2000 to 2004, expanding organizer training programs and leading a national campaign for racial justice in welfare policy. From 1986 to 1994, Toney served as Founding Executive of Direct Action for Rights & Equality in Providence, Rhode Island, leading campaigns to prevent winter utility shut offs, and winning one of the nation's first Percentage of Income Payment Plans to cap the utility bills of low-income families at 6% of their annual income. From 1992 to 1994 Toney was appointed by Rhode Island Governor Bruce Sundlun to serve as a consumer representative on the State Energy Coordinating Council, where he opposed retail wheeling proposals to discount electricity costs paid by large industrial users that would have meant higher bills for residential customers. A native Californian, Toney was born in Barstow, graduated from Vintage High School in Napa, and received his undergraduate degree at Brown University. Toney was awarded his Doctorate in Sociology from the University of California at Berkeley in 2007. His leadership accomplishments have been recognized nationally by his selection as a Kellogg National Leadership Fellow, National Science Foundation Fellow, and an Echoing Green Fellow.