Tommie Werneth of Orange Beach has been elected chairman of the Alabama Rural Electric Association Board of Directors. Werneth, vice-president of the Baldwin EMC Board of Directors, also will serve on the association’s strategic planning committee. She has been a member of AREA’s board for 12 years and has represented Baldwin’s District 4 since 1996.

Other officers elected were Vince Johnson of Flomaton, vice chairman, and Lavaughn Holcomb of Boaz, secretary-treasurer.

The Alabama Rural Electric Association is the not-for-profit, member-owned statewide trade association representing Alabama’s 22 electric distribution cooperatives, PowerSouth Energy Cooperative and the Tennessee Valley Authority. Together, they deliver power to more than 1 million people, or a quarter of the state’s population, and they maintain more than 71,000 miles of power line.