For Immediate Release
Contact: L. B. Stovall, Greenville Water System, 864. 241.6004

Water Commission Announces Deb Sofield as its Chair

(Greenville, SC, February 1, 2010 ) The Commissioners of Public Works for the Greenville Water System is pleased to announce the election of Debra M. "Deb" Sofield as Chairman.

Ms. Sofield has served on the Commission for ten years, eight as a mayoral appointee while on Greenville City Council and most recently in 2007, she won election to the open seat formally held by Mr. Vardry Ramseur. Ms. Sofield stated, "This is a great honor to represent the Water System as Chairman and be a part of the history of an organization that has so ably served the citizens of the Upstate. I look forward to carrying on the vision that was set forth almost 100 years ago to provide clean, safe, and affordable drinking water."

Ms. Sofield is the first woman to ever serve as an appointee, an elected member and now Chairman in the Greenville Water Systems history.

Ms. Sofield is President of her own Executive Speech & Presentations Coaching Co., which trains women and men for success in speaking, presentation skills and message development in the U.S. and abroad.
Sofield was recently chosen as a Liberty Fellow - a partnership with the Aspen Institute. Sofield was awarded the Order of the Palmetto - the State of South Carolina's highest honor. She was named "Communicator of the Year" by the Association for Women in Communications and won the prestigious Toastmasters District 58 Communication and Leadership Award for the state of South Carolina. She was also awarded the Strom Thurmond Excellence in Public Service honor and was chosen as the 2005 ATHENA AWARD recipient by the Greenville chamber of Commerce for her work with young people and aspiring politicians. Deb is a member of the national Speakers Association.

Deb Sofield is a visiting professor, teaching public speaking at Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government - Women in Public Policy Program, the Woman's Campaign School at Yale University (where Sofield is President of the Board), the Southeastern Institute for Women in Politics, the University of South Carolina's School of Journalism and Mass Communications and the Thurmond Institute's Self Civic Fellows program Ethics in Government program at Clemson University, she also works with Furman University Lifelong Learning. Sofield works with the International Republican Institute of Washington, DC teaching, Communications Training for Civil Society around the world. She recently joined CLIME, The Center for Liberty in the Middle East as a mentor and trainer.

The Commissioners of Public Works oversee the management and operation of the Greenville Water System. What began in the late 1880's as the Paris Mountain Water Company was transformed into City Water Works in 1918 with the creation of the Commission. At that time, water was supplied to Greenville from lakes on Paris Mountain. Some of those lakes are now part of the Paris Mountain State Park as a result of the Commission giving the land to the State Park System in 1935.

The Greenville Water System now serves approximately 400,000 people through nearly 170,000 accounts and delivers, on average, nearly 60 Million Gallons of water daily. Sources of water now include Table Rock Reservoir, North Saluda Reservoir and Lake Keowee.