Speakers

Federal Communications Commission Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel believes that the future belongs to the connected. She works to promote greater opportunity, accessibility, and affordability in our communications services in order to ensure that all Americans get a fair shot at 21st century success. She believes strong communications markets can foster economic growth and security, enhance digital age opportunity, and enrich our civic life.

From fighting to protect net neutrality to ensuring access to the internet for students caught in the Homework Gap, Jessica has been a consistent champion for connecting all. She is a leader in spectrum policy, developing new ways to support wireless services from Wi-Fi to video and the internet of things. She also is responsible for developing policies to help expand the reach of broadband to schools, libraries, hospitals, and households across the country.

Named as one of POLITICO's 50 Politicos to Watch and profiled by InStyle Magazine in a series celebrating "women who show up, speak up and get things done," Jessica brings over two decades of communications policy experience and public service to the FCC. Prior to joining the agency, she served as Senior Communications Counsel for the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, under the leadership of Senator John D. Rockefeller IV and Senator Daniel Inouye. Before entering public service, Jessica practiced communications law in Washington, DC.

She is a native of Hartford, Connecticut. She is a graduate of Wesleyan University and New York University School of Law. She lives in Washington, DC with her husband and two children.

Gov. Jay Inslee has appointed Russ Elliott Director of the State Broadband Office in the Department of Commerce. The State Broadband Office was established by the Legislature this year to develop and improve affordable, quality broadband throughout Washington state in order to drive job creation, promote innovation, improve economic vitality and expand markets for Washington businesses. Elliott will lead the Broadband Office’s work to achieve goals including serving the growing needs of Washington’s education, health care and public safety systems; industries and business; governmental operations and residents, and to improve broadband access for unserved communities and populations.

Elliot finalized Wyoming’s Broadband Plan, facilitated a new broadband mapping project, implemented a broadband infrastructure grant program and helped guide legislation aimed at expanding coverage throughout Wyoming.

Before his work in the public sector, Elliott spent 11 years working to connect rural communities to quality, affordable internet while serving as President of Brainstorm Internet. Concurrently, he served on the Colorado Innovation Council and Colorado’s Public Utility Commission Telecom Advisory Group, and chaired the telecommunications committee for Club 20 of Western Colorado for seven years. Elliott holds a master’s degree in business administration from Colorado State University.

“Russ is the right person to lead our state’s broadband office,” Gov. Jay Inslee said. “His extensive experience navigating federal broadband funding programs, organizing and managing varied stakeholder interests will ensure that this work will benefit all Washingtonians.

“Broadband is the single most important economic development tool we have and that’s why I put forth legislation to create the Broadband Office. I am glad that the legislature agreed, and now with Russ at the helm we can starting ensuring more equitable access to education, jobs and health care throughout the state.”

“We are delighted to welcome Russ to our team,” Commerce Director Dr. Lisa Brown said. “Broadband is a key piece of infrastructure that strengthens communities and facilitates equity in economic opportunity across the state.”

“I like to say that when the mission, vision and moonshot are the loudest voices in the room, the people win,” Elliott said. “I’m excited by the momentum here in Washington and the commitment that the state has made to achieving affordable and quality service for all residents of the state. I plan to hit the ground running.”

Alan Howze is advancing organizational excellence and innovation as Assistant County Administrator and Chief Knowledge Officer of the Unified Government of Kansas City, Kansas and Wyandotte County. Alan leads the Knowledge Department, with 50 employees and a budget of $8 million across four divisions: Information Technology, 311 Call Center, Geospatial Services, and a Performance and Innovation team. As Assistant County Administrator he is a member of the senior executive team and has oversight responsibility for Human Resources, Fire Department, Office of the Clerk, and Appraiser’s Office.

In his leadership role, Alan focuses his team on delivering high-quality digital services, modernizing information technology, and promoting innovation and open data. His team has delivered a new fiber network; the award winning myWyco mobile app; the UG’s first cloud infrastructure and applications; an enterprise-wide geospatial analytics initiative; and an open data portal. Current projects his group is working on include electronic medical records system replacement, body and vehicle cameras, city-wide camera network, and parks reservation system, and several regional data sharing efforts.

The data team, established by Howze, has partnered with multiple departments to bring together different data sources and visualize data in creative ways. The data team has been instrumental in helping address blight and support infill-housing and neighborhood revitalization initiatives.

In 2019, Alan was named a GoldenGov County Executive of the Year by StateScoop.

Prior to joining the Unified Government, Alan was a Fellow with the IBM Center for the Business of Government. Earlier in his career he worked for the US Congress and served as Political Director for Governor (now Senator) Mark Warner of Virginia. Alan studied Economics and Anthropology at James Madison University and received an MBA from the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.

Craig Rice was first elected to the Montgomery County Council in November 2010, at the time becoming the youngest African American ever to serve on the nine-member Council and the second African American man to serve in that role. In December 2013, his colleagues elected Craig to serve as president of the Council. In 2014 and again in 2018, he was re-elected to a four-year term on the Council.

Craig’s commitment to public service includes serving as a member of the House of Delegates in the Maryland General Assembly from 2006 until 2010, where he was on the legislative body’s prestigious and influential Ways and Means Committee.

As the District 2 representative on the County Council, he represents the Up-County, Montgomery County’s  most geographically diverse district and fastest growing region. The Upcounty is home to  rural communities, including Damascus, Boyds, Barnesville, Dickerson and Hyattstown as well as burgeoning areas such as Germantown and Clarksburg.  District 2 also includes the areas of Montgomery Village, Darnestown, and parts of North Potomac.

With a deep commitment to education, Craig has chaired the Council’s Education and Culture Committee since 2013. He also serves on its Health and Human Services Committee. In addition, Councilmember Rice serves as the Council’s representative to the Maryland Association of Counties (MACo) in Annapolis and chairs MACo’s Education sub-committee. Craig served on the Maryland Commission on Innovation and Excellence in Education (Kirwan Commission), leading the Early Care and Education workgroup. This commission met for three years to research and develop a Blueprint for Maryland’s Future for public education.

Councilmember Rice is the past chair and current member of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) Chesapeake Bay and Water Resources Policy Committee and is the co-chair of their Food and Agriculture Regional Member (FARM) Ad-Hoc Advisory Committee. Appointed to serve on the National Association of Counties (NACO) Board of Directors in 2019, in July 2020 he was selected to serve as Vice Chair of the Human Services and Education Steering Committee. He continues his contributions to national collaboration with his appointment in October 2020 as co-chair of the National Broadband Task Force to Bridge the Digital Divide, comprised of nearly three dozen county government officials from across America.

A lifelong resident of Montgomery County, Craig attended Montgomery County Public Schools, graduating from Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring. He went on to the University of Illinois, majoring in Aerospace Engineering. Later he transferred to the University of Maryland, where he graduated with a major in Computer Science. In 2019, Craig was inducted into the Blair High School Hall of Fame. 

Craig’s interest in seeing the County improve its economic development strategies stems from his background of having worked with Fortune 500 companies including Marriott International and Aramark Corporation. He also served as a business development manager for the government of Puerto Rico.

Angela has been working in the field we now call digital inclusion since 1997. She has helped physically set up computer labs in underserved areas, managed broadband conferences, conducted research, managed digital inclusion programs, assisted with the Department of Commerce’s Broadband Adoption Toolkit, testified before Congress and more. In 2015, Angela helped found NDIA. Angela serves on the Board of Directors of the Schools, Health, & Libraries Broadband Coalition. Government Technology Magazine named Angela one of their Top 25 Doers, Dreams, and Drivers of 2019.

Aldona Valicenti was reappointed by Mayor Linda Gorton as Commissioner/CIO in January, 2019. She is collaborating with the Mayor’s Office on several initiatives, which include Rethink Lex, a reengineering of city operations and services. Former Mayor Gray named Aldona Valicenti as Lexington’s first Chief Information Officer in 2013. She was also the first appointed CIO for the Commonwealth of Kentucky and served as president of the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) during her tenure.

Since leaving state government, Valicenti has been vice president of consulting services at CGI, an international information technology firm and vice president of business development for Oracle Corp., one of the world’s largest enterprise software companies. She has implemented a number of new systems, made investments in network operations, cyber security, public safety and cloud-based systems. She was a co- sponsor of the Gig for Lex project, a high-speed broadband initiative for the entire city.

She now has oversight for the build-out, making Lexington one of the largest gig cities. Valicenti holds a master’s degree from Wayne State University in Detroit and has received numerous awards, including recognition as “public official of the year” by Governing magazine.

She has testified in Congress, advocating for state technology issues, and has advised a number of states and governors on the CIO role and organization of the CIO office. Valicenti continues to be a frequent panelist and speaker. She served on the GAO Executive Committee on Information Management and Technology, is a board member of the Technology Association of the Bluegrass and was recently appointed to the advisory board for Next Century Cities.

Matt served 11 years in the Vermont House and Senate, enacting the state’s first broadband grants, brownfields revitalization funding, and downtown redevelopment program. He helped grow a VT-based software company to over 100 people and was Associate Director of the Rockefeller Center on Public Policy at Dartmouth College.

In 1999 Matt was appointed director of AmeriCorps*VISTA under President Clinton, where he led PowerUp, one of the first national efforts to bridge the digital divide, and launched an Entrepreneur Corps to focus on micro-finance in high-need communities.

In 2007, he started Google’s Community Affairs division out of a former bread factory in White River Jct, VT, where he led all local US philanthropy and engagement, including the Google Fiber rollout and orchestrating educational and development initiatives in Google’s data center communities across rural America.

Matt has a BA from Brown University, and also held an appointment at the MIT Media Lab. He is a lifelong Vermonter who lives on the 100 acre farm where he was raised.

Alisha Powell Gillis is the senior editor at Route Fifty where she is responsible for programming live and online events content, moderating panel discussions, soliciting, editing and writing analytical pieces and overseeing the annual Navigator Awards program. Before joining Route Fifty, Alisha was the director for community impact at the Urban Libraries Council (ULC) where she worked to connect urban public libraries to critical issues in state and local government and led event programming. Prior to ULC, Alisha served the nation's governors for nearly a decade at the National Governors Association where she specialized in homeland security, emergency management and cybersecurity issues. Alisha holds a master's degree in global security studies from Johns Hopkins University and a bachelor's degree in political science from Hofstra University.

Bill Lucia is a senior editor for Government Executive's Route Fifty. He previously covered Seattle city government for Crosscut.com and holds a master's in public administration from the University of Washington's Evans School of Public Affairs.

Dr. Rico is currently the Executive Director of Technology for Canutillo Independent School District. Prior to this, he served as a teacher or administrator in El Paso County, as well as the principal of the Jose J. Alderete Middle School. He holds an undergraduate degree in medical microbiology.

Marcus leads System Engineering for US Public Sector. He and his team of 520 Systems Engineering Leaders, Systems Engineers and Architects are responsible for the discovery of business/mission requirements and the design of a secure, intelligent platform to support the digital business journey of our Public Sector customers, both directly and through partners. This business is worth $7B annually to Cisco.

Before his current role, Marc spent six years as a System Engineering Director for the Public Sector State/Local Government and Education sales SE team who were responsible for over $1.8B in annual product and services business. 

As a 20+ year Cisco veteran, Marc has extensive experience in the Public Sector, Enterprise, and Commercial Territory/Select business sectors and has held roles with increasing responsibility starting as a Systems Engineer, SE Manager, Senior SE Manager and now Director. He also achieved his Cisco Certified Internetworking Expert Certification (CCIE #10079) in 2002. 

Marc has 30 years of systems engineering and management experience, serving our country in the US Air Force where he spent more than eight years as a Tech Controller at Clark Airbase in the Philippines and Gunter AFB in Montgomery, AL. 

Marc lives in Southern California with his best half, Christelle Gigant and their dog Lola, and when time permits, he spends time on the family farm in Mississippi working on restoring a historic 1870s era home as well as working on various conservation projects. He is a proud dad to his son Caleb, who attends St. Louis University and grandfather to granddaughters, Mayce and Harley. Marc loves the outdoors where he spends time running, cycling, swimming, hiking, hunting, and fishing.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mstmoffett/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mstmoffett

Will Aycock is responsible for the management and oversight of all Greenlight and information technology operations. He also supervises the management of the Unified Communications Center. He has worked with the City of Wilson since 2001 and has been part of the Greenlight team since launch in 2008. Aycock previously served as operations manager, assistant director of ITS, GIS manager and GIS coordinator for the City of Wilson. He is a graduate of both Appalachian State and East Carolina Universities and holds Municipal Administration and Government Chief Information Officer certificates from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Daniel Linville (R - Cabell, 16)

Assistant Majority Whip

Biography: Information Technology Director

Education: Bachelor’s Degree Marshall University

Affiliations: Farm Bureau; Cabell-Wayne Beekeepers Association; Milton, WV Rotary Club

Legislative Service: Appointed to the House August 1, 2018; Elected to the House 2018-2020

Legislative Positions Held: Vice Chair, Committee on Technology and Infrastructure, 84th Legislature

Other Public Service: Ex-Officio Member, West Virginia Broadband Enhancement Council; Board of Directors Keith Albee Theater; Chair, Employee Suggestion Award Board, 84th Legislature

Robert H. Plymale (D - Wayne, 05)

Education Marshall University

Affiliations Co-Chair, Keith Albee Performing Arts, Inc; member, Huntington Regional Chamber of Commerce; Western Gate Land Development Corporation; Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) Executive Committee and Advisory Council; Member, Board of Control, SREB; Treasurer, SREB; Education Commission of the States; NCSL Blue Ribbon Commission on Higher Education Finance; NCSL National Task Force on “No Child Left Behind”; NCSL Blue Ribbon Commission for Higher Education; Co-Chair, NCSL Federal Education Policy Task Force; Vice Chair of General Officers, NCSL; Early Learning Fellow, NCSL; WV Broadband Enhancement Council 2018; FCC, Intergovernmental Advisory Committee Member, 2020-2022

Legislative Service Elected to the Senate 1992-2020

Legislative Positions Held Chair, Committee on Education, 76th, 77th, 78th, 79th, 80th and 81st Legislatures; Vice Chair, Committees on Health and Human Resources, 75th Legislature; Chair, Select Committee on PEIA, 73rd Legislature; Member, Infrastructure & Jobs Development Council, 73rd Legislature; Chair, Committee on Pensions, 72nd, 73rd, 74th and 75th Legislatures; Co-Chair, Forest Management Review Commission, 71st and 72nd Legislatures; Chair, Committee on Transportation, 71st Legislature

Rena Brewer, RN, MA is the Principal Investigator for the HRSA funded Southeastern Telehealth Resource Center and is the  CEO of Global / Georgia Partnership for Telehealth, Inc. (GPT), a charitable, nonprofit corporation dedicated to the advancement of telehealth thru the establishment and on-going support of telehealth programs. GPT’s robust telehealth network has over 1,500 end points of providers and receivers of clinical services in 10 US states & several international projects. Partners include rural & urban health systems, healthcare providers, SNFs, schools, jails, public health departments, orphanages & a variety of clinics. 

Since 2010, GPT has served as the Southeastern Telehealth Resource Center providing expert telehealth technical assistance and training to various telehealth stakeholders in AL, FL, GA & SC. SETRC is part of the National Consortium of Telehealth Resource Centers.

Rena has 15 years of building and implementing telehealth programs in a variety of clinical settings.  She is a graduate of Darton College of Nursing and LaGrange College with degrees in Nursing and a Masters in Organizational Leadership.

Alex leads broadband work for the Center on Rural Innovation (CORI) and RISI. He currently is working with eight counties and communities around the country, from the Northeast to Arkansas, to develop feasible and fundable fiber networks that incorporate strategies to address affordability, digital literacy, and digital equity along the way. Previously, Alex project-managed workforce development and GIS/geospatial mapping work for CORI, and researched automation and remote employment trends.

Before joining CORI, Alex’s career had been split between professional services in Silicon Valley and rural organizing and political strategy.

He holds a BA from Wesleyan University.

Carole Monroe is the CEO of ValleyNet, the operations company of ECFiber. Before joining ValleyNet in June of 2015, Carole worked as a Broadband Consultant, with the City of Keene, NH on a Gigabit City vision and as the Executive Director of New Hampshire FastRoads, a regional fiber-optic network in western New Hampshire delivering gigabit broadband to community anchor institutions, businesses, and residents.

Bridget E. Quinn is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Hartford Public Library. Prior to joining HPL in 2016, Ms. Quinn served as the Executive Vice President/Chief Operating Officer and Interim President/CEO of the Queens Library in New York City. She was also the Director of the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library system and has held leadership positions in libraries in
New York, Iowa and Connecticut.

Ms. Quinn earned her BA from the State University of New York at Binghamton. She earned her MLS and MBA from St. John’s University. She is a member of the academic honor societies Beta Gamma Sigma, Sigma Iota Epsilon, and Beta Phi Mu. She is a former member and Chair of the New York State Regents Advisory Council on Libraries. She currently serves on the Connecticut State Library’s Advisory Council for Library Planning and Development. She is a member of the American Library Association, Black Caucus of the American Library Association, Public Library Association, Connecticut Library Association and New York Library Association. She is a Corporator for Hartford Hospital and a member of the Board of the Mark Twain House and Museum.

Kathryn de Wit directs Pew’s broadband access initiative, which examines efforts to connect millions of Americans to high-speed, reliable internet. In addition to assessing how states are approaching this challenge, de Wit’s work also includes addressing research gaps and bringing together stakeholders for data-driven discussions about how to close the connectivity gap.

Before joining Pew, de Wit was an associate with Booz Allen Hamilton, where she focused on telecommunications issues. Before her work at Booz Allen Hamilton, she was a senior fellow with the Heinz Endowments.

De Wit holds bachelor’s degrees in communications and sociology from Penn State University and a master’s in public administration from the University of Pittsburgh.

Alisha Powell Gillis is the senior editor at Route Fifty where she is responsible for programming live and online events content, moderating panel discussions, soliciting, editing and writing analytical pieces and overseeing the annual Navigator Awards program. Before joining Route Fifty, Alisha was the director for community impact at the Urban Libraries Council (ULC) where she worked to connect urban public libraries to critical issues in state and local government and led event programming. Prior to ULC, Alisha served the nation's governors for nearly a decade at the National Governors Association where she specialized in homeland security, emergency management and cybersecurity issues. Alisha holds a master's degree in global security studies from Johns Hopkins University and a bachelor's degree in political science from Hofstra University.