Digital Inclusion Forum Inaugural Meeting

Anne-Rivers Forcke manages the Global Public Sector Marketing program for the IBM Research Division's World Wide Human Ability and Accessibility Center.

Ms. Forcke brings nearly 20 years of experience in technology transfer, marketing strategy and innovation management in both the public and private sectors. An accomplished speaker and respected advisor on strategies for Digital Inclusion, Ms. Forcke has led innovation initiatives for management, technical and public policy teams, contributing to the study of organizational design in innovation management.

As IBM's representative to the Board of Directors of the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) from 2000-2006, Ms. Forcke was active in several standards and policy projects, including the current development of recommendation for the technical standards revision to Section 508 and Section 255 regulating the accessibility of Information and Communication Technologies. From 2004-2006 she also represents IBM on the Board of Governors for the Electronics Industry Association (EIA) and is an Associate Professor of Business Communications at the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University in Washington, DC.

Ms. Forcke has a Master's degree in Science, Technology and Public Policy from the George Washington University in Washington, DC. She attended Harvard University as part of her undergraduate degree, receiving a Bachelor's degree in International Affairs also from GWU.

Don Kent is Chairman of Net Literacy (www.netliteracy.org), a "youth-empowered" nonprofit that increases computer access, computer literacy and Internet safety awareness to help inner city youths, family members, and the underserved. Net Literacy's 600+ student volunteers have increased computer access to over 65,000 individuals in four states, had legislation passed by the Indiana State Assembly, and US Senators Lugar and Bayh serve as honorary co-chairs. The youth volunteers have repurposed thousands of computers in an EPA complaint manner, and have taught senior citizens computer and Internet skills in an intergenerational program called Senior Connects (www.seniorconnects.org). A $100,000 Internet safety awareness program will commence in February 2007 based upon its Safe Connects program (www.safeconnects.org). Net Literacy has extensive partnerships with hundreds of nonprofits and municipalities that range from the City of Fort Wayne to the Town of Westfield, Indiana. Net Literacy has also been recognized and has received awards from our nations' leadership, ranging from Senator Dole to General Powell, and from President Bill Clinton to President Bush in a White House ceremony. To increase attention to the digital divide, students have been featured in national and local media, ranging from NPR to People Magazine and from ABC TV to the AARP Magazine.

Previously, Don has worked as a venture capitalist, a chief marketing officer, and in an operations capacity. Most recently, Don served as President & COO of Channelseek, an Internet portal company that was sold to a NY competitor. Prior to that, he was Vice President of Marketing & Content of People's Choice, a terrestrial video and broadband provider that was sold to Sprint for $500 million. Don also served as Executive Vice President & COO of Insight Communications for twelve years, helping lay the foundation for the company to go public in 2000. Insight is now the 9th largest cable operator in the United States. Don serves on several entrepreneurial and startup company boards. His MBA is from the University of Utah and his BS is from the US Air Force Academy.

Robert Atkinson is President of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a Washington, DC-based technology policy think tank. He is also author of the State New Economy Index series and the book, The Past and Future of America’s Economy: Long Waves of Innovation that Power Cycles of Growth (Edward Elgar, 2005). He has an extensive background in technology policy, he has conducted ground-breaking research projects on technology and innovation, is a valued adviser to state and national policy makers, and a popular speaker on innovation policy nationally and internationally.

Before coming to ITIF, Dr. Atkinson was Vice President of the Progressive Policy Institute and Director of PPI’s Technology & New Economy Project. While at PPI he wrote numerous research reports on technology and innovation policy, including on issues such as broadband telecommunications, Internet telephony, universal service, e-commerce, e-government, middleman opposition to e-commerce, privacy, copyright, RFID and smart cards, the role of IT in homeland security, the R&D tax credit, offshoring, and growth economics.

Previously Dr. Atkinson served as the first Executive Director of the Rhode Island Economic Policy Council, a public-private partnership including as members the Governor, legislative leaders, and corporate and labor leaders. As head of RIEPC, he was responsible for drafting a comprehensive economic strategic development plan for the state, developing a ten-point economic development plan, and working to successfully implement all ten proposals through the legislative and administrative branches. Prior to that he was Project Director at the former Congressional Office of Technology Assessment. While at OTA, he directed “The Technological Reshaping of Metropolitan America,” a seminal report examining the impact of the information technology revolution on America’s urban areas.

He is a board member or advisory council member of the Alliance for Public Technology, Information Policy Institute, Internet Education Foundation, NanoBusiness Alliance, NetChoice Coalition, the Pacific Institute for Workforce Innovation, and the University of Oregon Institute for Policy Research and Innovation. He also serves on the advisory panel to Americans for Computer Privacy, is an affiliated expert for the New Millennium Research Council, a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Electronic Government, a member of the Reason Foundation’s Mobility Project Advisory Board, and a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. Dr. Atkinson was appointed by President Clinton to the Commission on Workers, Communities, and Economic Change in the New Economy. In 2007 DOT Secretary Mary Peters appointed him to the National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission. He is also a member of the Task Force on National Security in the Information Age, co-chaired by Markle Foundation president Zoe Baird and former Netscape Communications chairman James Barksdale. In 1999, he was featured in “Who’s Who in America: Finance and Industry.” In 2002, he was awarded the Wharton Infosys Business Transformation Award Silver Medal. In addition, Government Technology Magazine and the Center for Digital Government named him one of the 25 top “Doers, Dreamers and Drivers of Information Technology.” In 2006, Inc. Magazine listed Atkinson as one of “19 Friends” of small business in Washington. He received his Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1989.

Jane Smith Patterson currently serves as executive director of the e-NC Authority, an organization with a goal of bringing affordable high-speed Internet access to the citizens, businesses and institutions of North Carolina, particularly in rural areas. Prior to taking this leadership position in 2001, Jane worked for North Carolina Gov. Jim Hunt through his four terms in office, first as secretary of administration, then as chief advisor for policy, budget and technology, and finally as senior advisor for science and technology and director of the office for technology. Jane's background also includes working in the private industry as vice-president of ITT Corporation- Network Systems Group, of ITT-Alcatel and Alcatel, NA. She consistently leads focused efforts to improve technology and its application, in order to enhance the economy of North Carolina and advance educational opportunities for future generations.

Jane is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and has completed post-graduate work at N.C. State University and additional studies at Harvard University. She serves on a number of boards for nonprofit organizations, including the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation.

Joe Mefford is a private consultant serving as the Statewide Broadband Director for ConnectKentucky. He manages the organization's efforts related to Kentucky's Prescription for Innovation, a comprehensive broadband deployment and adoption plan that is slated to leverage state, federal and private investment to blanket Kentucky with high-speed Internet access by 2007.

In this role, Joe is responsible for facilitating the Commonwealth’s comprehensive GIS-based Inventory Assessment of existing broadband infrastructure and service availability, the community-by-community implementation planning process and ensuring that every community will have an online presence and the ability to improve citizen quality of life at the local level through this initiative. Under his direction, communities will have the ability to use technology applications and build partnerships that provide real time budget savings and process efficiencies over the Internet, ensuring their ability to compete in the global market.

Prior to joining ConnectKentucky, Joe served Kentucky as Chief Information Officer for Kentucky League of Cities (KLC) helping communities statewide with technology that would enable them to compete in the new economy, improving local government services, leadership and citizenship efforts. His expertise spans more than thirty years in telecommunications encompassing a broad range of responsibilities with Bell South and American Telephone and Telegraph. Among his many accomplishments in Kentucky is the management of telecommunications teams in the first digital switching office and performing as a liaison for furthering economic development.

Karen Archer Perry is the founder and owner of Karacomm where she has spearheaded programs for inclusion, education and empowerment. She has worked with cities and corporations throughout the United States, including Philadelphia, San Francisco, El Paso and Winston-Salem, helping them assess needs and shape community digital inclusion programs to address them. She has performed community assessments, designed PC purchase programs, documented best practices and helped establish myriads of other digital empowerment programs. Karen is a frequent speaker on digital empowerment at conferences around the country and has authored publications on community best practices. Prior to establishing her own business, Karen worked for AT&T/Lucent Technologies and the Bell Labs family of companies. She earned her BSEE at the University of Washington and her Masters in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University. She is active in the Girl Scouts and a member of the Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers.

Karen Tamley was named Commissioner of MOPD by Richard M. Daley in March of 2005. MOPD promotes total access, full participation and equal opportunity people with all types of disabilities and to make the City of Chicago the most accessible in the nation.
As a person with a disability herself, Ms. Tamley has dedicated her entire career to furthering the rights and opportunity of her community. Prior to her appointment she served as the Director of Programs for Access Living, a Center for Independent Living serving people with disabilities in Chicago. In that role she oversaw the agency's programs and services in the issue areas of housing, healthcare, personal assistance services, youth leadership, school inclusion, and civil rights enforcement.

Much of her background is in the area of housing. Prior to her position at Access Living, she served as Housing Director of a not-for-profit organization in Denver, Colorado developing a national model home and consumer loan program for low income people with disabilities. In 1990 she began her career working at the National Disability Action Center, a disability rights law firm in Washington, D.C.

In 1994, Ms. Tamley co-founded the Disability Rights Action Coalition, with the purpose bringing together individuals and organizations to advocate for increased choice and availability of affordable, accessible, integrated housing for people with disabilities on a national level.

Ms. Tamley earned a Bachelors of Science degree in psychology from the University of California, Berkeley.

Maria E. Wynne is the Senior Director of Microsoft Corporation, Office of Economic Development and Innovation, U.S. Public Sector. In her most recent assignment, she was General Manager for the U.S. State and Local organization at Microsoft. In her nearly 25-year career, Maria has generated success in sales, marketing, business development, and operations management for technology leaders Xerox, Microsoft, and Ameritech (now the new AT&T). As a senior executive leader, she has been responsible for leading sizable organizations in both public and private sector environments. Maria earned her bachelor of arts degree at North Central College, Naperville, Illinois, and her master of business administration from Northern Illinois University. She has continued her executive development with executive training at the Center for Creative Leadership and at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. She serves on the board of the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, Illinois, where she resides.

Mark Ansboury is a veteran telecommunication professional with years of community development, information technology and telecommunications leadership experience in the private and public sectors.  He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Technology officer of OneCommunity where he manages the technical, operational and business development of OneCommunity's ultra broadband community network.  In addition, he serves as Chief Operations Officer for the Northeast Ohio Region Health Information Organization and OneCommunity HealthNet Partnership, where he is responsible for coordination of the Federal Communications Commission pilot project. 

Most recently, Mark served as Vice President of managed services and chief technology officer for Telsource Managed Network Services of Fairfield, New Jersey.  He was executive vice president of engineering, chief technology officer and director of ClearData Communications where he was responsible for the national deployment of an IP/ATM/WDN network.  Prior to that, Mark was President and Founder of NGT Partners, LLC a technology and financial consulting firm and Information Technology Partners (ITECH Partners), responsible for the development of wireless and national IP/ATM, and wireless strategies for AT&T, Intermedia Communications, Bell South and Optus Communications and network deployment and management for OPTUS Communications/Advanced Radio Telecom, and Winstar.

In addition, Mark served as Director for Telecommunications at the State of Texas Department of Information Resources where he was responsible for the Texas Statewide IP and Telemedicine network. He also served as co-chair on the state's Telemedicine Strategic Plan and led the development of the State of Texas Telecommunications Plan.  During this period Mr. Ansboury also served as a legislative consultant on the Texas Telecommunications Reform Act of 1996.

Mark holds a M.S. in systems management from the University of Southern California and B.S./B.A. from Hawaii Pacific College.  He served nine years in the U.S. Navy and earned an IEE Certification in Communications.  Additionally, Mark is certified as a Security CISSP and Disaster Recovery Planner.

Active in the workforce development and nonprofit community, Mark supports a number of community collaborations including serving as a Team Leader for Aligning Forces for Quality in Health Care, serving as an Advisor for the Ohio Health Information Partnership, serving as an Advisor to the Health Policy Institute of Ohio for the HISPC Grant, and as a Trustee for the Cleveland Ingenuity Festival.

Niambi brings experience with spearheading leading edge programs for women and girls nationwide to the District of Columbia. A major proponent of collaborative relationships, Ms. Jarvis and OWPI will launch the Washington Women's Empowerment Initiative to facilitate private and public partnerships while providing the District's female population with much needed information and access to resources. Such programs include Ward X Ward, the Harriet Tubman Women's Shelter Makeover, and the Anacostia Waterfront Women's Economic Equity Initiative.
Niambi graduated from Howard University for both Undergraduate and Law School. She has also studied at Universidad del Norte in Barranquilla, Colombia; in addition, she traveled a Youth Ambassador to Israel in 1988. Ms. Jarvis has been recognized in print and on television including, Black Entertainment Television (BET), BET.com, Good Morning America, AOL Black Voices, Black Enterprise, and Heart & Soul for her work with women and girls nationwide.

In addition, she has spoken on diversity issues with organizations ranging from Working Mother Media and Microsoft to the America-Israel Friendship League. Her work to create restorative conferences, workshops and seminars through state-of-the-art media channels for women connects over 40,000 women across the United States. Her professional experience includes affirmative action federal contract compliance, program management, non-profit program development and major information technology rollouts.

Peter Korinis has been the Chief Information Officer for the City of Miami, Florida since 2002. Current initiatives at the City include major new system implementations: ERP, 911 Police and Fire dispatch and records, 311 Call Center, and GIS & Land Management systems.

A former Chief Information Officer for Fairfax County, Virginia, and Senior Manager with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Mr. Korinis has founded two information technology firms (governIT and M2KA) to provide business software data and services to local governments. A retired Naval Security Group Officer, he has more than 30 years of operational and management experience in information technology, strategic planning, telecommunications, system development, information engineering, data administration, change management, team building, project management, and the comprehensive application of information technology solutions to business problems, particularly in government and K-12 education.

Mr. Korinis holds an M.S. in Information System Technology from The George Washington University and a B.S.E. (Mechanical Engineering) from the University of Michigan.

Rick Herrmann has been with Intel for 18 years. During this tenure Rick has managed Intel's North American Channels Marketing Group, The High Performance Computing Program Office, and a Worldwide Government Digital Inclusion Program that built public private partnerships in 60 countries. He is currently leading a U.S. strategic team for Intel which helps educators, technology advocacy groups, policy makers, and State IT professionals craft and implement high impact technology solutions. Rick holds Master's Degrees from Pepperdine University in Technology Management and George Washington University in International Science and Technology Policy.

Steve Reneker is the first Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the City of Riverside. He came to Riverside from Dell Inc. where he ran Business Development for Public Safety and Criminal Justice for the state and local government segment. Prior to that, he served as the CIO for the County of Riverside. He has served in other government IT roles for over 15 years with the City of Aurora - CO., Eastern Municipal Water District and the City of Los Angeles.

Mr. Dowd recently rejoined the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) after spending the past fourteen months at the U.S. Department of the Interior serving as the first Director of the newly established Bureau of Indian Education. He has over twenty years of experience with employment and training programs at the national, regional, state, and local levels through his work as a former ETA Deputy Assistant Secretary, Administrator of ETA regional offices in Denver and Philadelphia, ETA Division Chief with National Programs, former Private Industry Council Member, and executive director with a non-profit corporation. Mr. Dowd is a graduate of the University of New Mexico, served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Sierra Leone, West Africa, and lived and worked in Denmark and Japan. He served as the Labor Department's representative at various international meetings in Europe and Canada. He was awarded the prestigious Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Executive in 2004.