Kathleen Quinn Abernathy is Executive Vice President of External Affairs for Frontier Communications Corporation (NASDAQ: FTR), an S&P 500 company included in the FORTUNE 500 list of America’s largest corporations. Ms. Abernathy joined Frontier on March 1, 2010 as Chief Legal Officer and Executive Vice President. Prior to this, she was a Partner at Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP, advising clients on a wide range of legal, policy and regulatory issues related to telecommunications and the media. Before this, she was a Partner at the law firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, LLP.

Ms. Abernathy served as a Commissioner with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from 2001-2005. While a Commissioner, she chaired the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service and participated as a U.S. representative in numerous international bilateral and multilateral negotiations, including the 2002 International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Plenipotentiary Conference and the 2003 ITU World Radiocommunications Conference. In addition, she was appointed by the ITU to chair the 2004 ITU Global Symposium for Regulators.

Prior to joining the FCC, Ms. Abernathy was Vice President for Public Policy at BroadBand Office Communications; Vice President for Regulatory Affairs at US West; and Vice President for Federal Regulatory Affairs at AirTouch Communications. Earlier in her career, she was Legal Advisor to two FCC commissioners and a Special Assistant to the agency’s General Counsel.
Ms. Abernathy has received numerous honors and awards in recognition of her contributions to the profession. She has been featured in Chambers USA’s “Leaders in their Field” in the Telecom, Broadcast & Satellite: Regulatory category (2009); included in the Washington, DC edition of Super Lawyers (2009); and named one of Washington’s Top Lawyers by Washingtonian magazine (2007, 2009). She received Legal Momentum's “Aiming High Award” in 2011.

Ms. Abernathy served on Frontier Communications’ board of directors from April 2006 through February 2010. She is currently on the boards of the John Gardner Fellowship Association at Stanford University and ISO New England. Ms. Abernathy received her B.A. magna cum laude from Marquette University and her J.D. from Catholic University’s Columbus School of Law, where she is a Distinguished Practitioner in Residence. She is a member of the District of Columbia Bar and the Federal Communications Bar Association, of which she is a Past-President, and has served as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center and The Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law.