Lori Cobos will deliver the Sul Ross State University spring commencement address at the ceremony on Friday, May 9, at 5:30 p.m. Pete P. Gallego Center in Alpine.
An Alpine native with deep West Texas roots, Cobos received a Bachelor of Business Administration in General Business with Magna Cum Laude honors and a Master of Arts in Public Administration from Sul Ross State University.
She was inducted into the Pi Sigma Alpha and Alpha Chi honor societies, and after graduation, served on the Board of Directors for the alumni association. She received SRSU’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 2024.
Cobos received a Doctor of Jurisprudence from Texas Tech University, where she was a member of the Texas Tech Law Review. She is a member of the State Bar of Texas and has served as chair of the Public Utility Law Section.
Cobos is a recognized leader in the electric power industry. Among many professional accomplishments, she has been appointed by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to three statewide positions and confirmed four times by the Texas Senate. Most recently, Cobos served as Commissioner at the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT), the state agency that regulates the electric, water, wastewater and telecommunications industries in Texas. Gov. Abbott appointed her to the PUCT after the devastating impacts of Winter Storm Uri in 2021, where she played a central role in managing the aftermath of the storm.
Cobos led major statewide initiatives to fortify the reliability and resiliency of the state’s electric grid, including improving grid reliability during extreme weather conditions, incentivizing new power generation investment, and leading a historic buildout of transmission infrastructure in the Permian Basin Region and the Rio Grande Valley. She served on the ERCOT Board of Directors and represented Texas in leadership roles in other major U.S. electricity markets. Prior to serving as PUCT Commissioner, she was the first Latina to serve as the Chief Executive and Public Counsel for the Office of Public Utility Counsel, the state agency that represents millions of residential and small commercial consumers. She also served on the Texas State Affordable Housing Corporation Board of Directors as an appointee of Gov. Abbott.
Cobos is currently the President of Cobos Strategies, LLC, a consulting firm based in Austin. Her practice focuses on the complex intersection of the law, regulations, public policy, market rules, politics and business development in the electric power industry.
The graduation ceremony will be livestreamed on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/live/vM-FrI67BPk.