David J. Redl was sworn in as Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information at the Department of Commerce in November 2017. He serves as Administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), the Executive Branch agency that is principally responsible for advising the President on telecommunications and information policy.

Redl is a lawyer and communications policy expert with more than a decade of experience in government and the private sector. He was previously the chief counsel at the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce. In that role, he served as principal legal advisor to the chairman and members of the Energy and Commerce majority on communications and technology matters. Prior to his time with the committee, Redl was director of regulatory affairs at CTIA, a trade association that represents the U.S. wireless communications industry.

Redl earned his J.D. from the Catholic University of America with a certificate from the Institute for Communications Law Studies, and he is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University with degrees in journalism and political science. Redl is admitted to the New York and District of Columbia bars. He lives in Falls Church, Virginia, with his wife, Amy, and their son, Benjamin.

Jonathan Zuck is the Executive Director of the Innovators Network Foundation (www.InnovatorsNetwork.org) a 501c(3) focused on issues surrounding global unemployment and workforce development. Prior to that Jonathan was the President of ACT|The App Association (wwwACTonline.org), representing app makers to policy makers. A popular speaker, Jonathan has been asked to speak on technology policy issues at conferences and before legislatures around the world, particularly on intellectual property and internet governance. A former software developer, Jonathan brings a unique perspective on the intersection of technology and government. Finally, Jonathan is an award winning photographer and filmmaker whose work can be found here: www.JonathanZuck.com

As Executive Director, Steve works with NetChoice members to set and execute the NetChoice agenda. Steve has become a well-known expert on Internet governance, online consumer protection, and Internet taxation. He’s provided expert testimony in twenty-one Congressional hearings and many more state legislative sessions. Steve advocates for NetChoice positions at the National Conference of State Legislatures and the American Legislative Exchange Council, where he serves on the Private Enterprise Board. Moreover, Steve regularly enters the lion’s den at the Streamlined Sales Tax Governing Board, where he’s the lone opponent of new tax burdens on Internet commerce. Steve is frequently quoted on technology issues in the media, including a segment on 60 Minutes exposing barriers to innovation in residential real estate. Steve debated online taxes on CNN Situation Room, CNBC Larry Kudlow, PBS Nightly Business Report, CBS This Morning, and Marketplace Radio.

Courtney C. Radsch, PhD, is advocacy director at the Committee to Protect Journalists. She serves as chief spokesperson on global press freedom issues for the organization and oversees CPJ's engagement with the United Nations, the Internet Governance Forum, and other multilateral institutions as well as CPJ's campaigns on behalf of journalists killed and imprisoned for their work. As a veteran journalist, researcher, and free expression advocate, she frequently writes and speaks about the intersection of media, technology, and human rights. Her book Cyberactivism and Citizen Journalism in Egypt: Digital Dissidence and Political Change was published in 2016. Prior to joining CPJ, Radsch worked for UNESCO, edited the flagship publication "World Trends in Freedom of Expression and Media Development," and managed the Global Freedom of Expression Campaign at Freedom House. She has worked as a journalist in the United States and Middle East with Al-Arabiya, the Daily Star, and The New York Times. Radsch holds a PhD in international relations from American University. She speaks Arabic, French, and Spanish.

Dr. Nicol Turner-Lee is a fellow in the program’s Center for Technology Innovation and a contributor to TechTank. She comes to Brookings from the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC), a national non-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting and preserving equal opportunity and civil rights in the mass media, telecommunications, and broadband industries, where she served as vice president and chief research and policy officer. In this role, she led the design and implementation of their research, policy, and advocacy agendas. Her most recent White Papers at MMTC included, “A Lifeline to High-Speed Internet Access: An Economic Analysis of Administrative Costs and the Impact on Consumers” (March 2016), “Guarding Against Data Discrimination in the Internet of Everything” (September 2015), “Refocusing Broadband Policy: The New Opportunity Agenda for People of Color” (November 2013).
Prior to joining MMTC, Dr. Turner-Lee was vice president and the first director of the Media and Technology Institute at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, the nation’s leading think tank on issues related to African Americans and other people of color. In this role, she led the technology research agenda that was focused on advancing digital equity and inclusion for historically disadvantaged populations. Her most notable work was her development of the first national minority broadband adoption study in 2009 that was later cited in the congressionally mandated Federal Communications Commission’s National Broadband Plan. Her other publications there included, “Minorities, Mobile Broadband, and the Management of Chronic Diseases” (April 2012), co-authored with Dr. Brian Smedley and Joseph Miller; “Place Matters: The Debate over Broadband Availability” (2011); and, “Increasing Civic Engagement in the Digital Age” (2010) which was published by the Federal Communications Commission Law Journal.

In addition to these and other publications, Dr. Turner-Lee has been cited in the New York Times, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Communications Daily, Multichannel News, Washington Informer, among other print and online publications. She is also a widely sought expert and speaker on issues related to communications policies in media and at conferences, and she has testified before Congress. Dr. Turner-Lee was a two-time Digital Research Program Scholar as part of Time Warner Cable’s Cable Research Program in Communications and recipient of countless recognitions, including the presentation of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rainbow PUSH Coalition (2015) and one of the Most Inspiring Women in Media from the Alliance of Women in Media (2014).

At the Center for Technology Innovation, Dr. Turner-Lee researches public policy designed to enable equitable access to technology across the U.S. and to harness its power to create change in communities across the world. Dr. Turner-Lee’s research also explores global and domestic broadband deployment, regulatory, and internet governance issues. She is also an expert on the intersection of race, wealth, and technology within the context of civic engagement, criminal justice, and economic development.

Dr. Turner-Lee graduated from Colgate University magna cum laude and has a M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociology from Northwestern University. She also holds a Certificate in Nonprofit Management from the University of Illinois-Chicago. Dr. Turner-Lee is a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Gender Equity in Science and Technology at Arizona State University. She also serves on the U.S. State Department’s Advisory Committee on International Communications and Information Policy (ACICIP). In her free time, Dr. Turner-Lee is active on the boards of various nonprofit organizations, including the Telecommunications Policy Research Conference (TPRC), the Washington Literacy Center, and STEM4US, which is committed to advancing diversity in the technology fields.

Marjory Blumenthal is a senior policy analyst and director of RAND's Science, Technology, and Policy Program. Prior to joining RAND, she served as executive director of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) within the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Blumenthal's PCAST projects addressed how systems engineering can improve the delivery of health care, the challenge of protecting privacy in the context of big data, new directions for cybersecurity, how information technology can improve education and training, the implications of new technologies for cities, biosecurity, design and evaluation of research programs, and more. Previously she was associate provost, academic, at Georgetown University, developing academic strategy, strengthening the sciences and the overall research program, and promoting innovation in areas from international engagement to teaching and learning. Before starting at Georgetown, Blumenthal was the founding executive director of the National Academies' Computer Science and Telecommunications Board (CSTB). She convened and teamed with technologists, social scientists, and other experts, producing over 60 influential books and reports that addressed the full range of information technologies and their societal impacts. Blumenthal holds an M.P.P. from Harvard University.

Ryan is Public Knowledge's General Counsel, overseeing major organizational legal and policy initiatives. Previously, Ryan was an IP litigator at Faegre Baker Daniels LLP in Denver. Before that, he served as counsel to Representative Zoe Lofgren of California, with a focus on intellectual property, internet, and competition policy. He has also practiced antitrust law, represented death row inmates in post-conviction proceedings, worked on several congressional campaigns, and taught as an adjunct professor at the University of Colorado Law School.

Bertrand de La Chapelle is the Executive Director and Co-founder of the Internet & Jurisdiction Policy Network. He has been a determined promoter and pioneering implementer of multi-stakeholder governance processes for more than 15 years, building upon his diversified experience as a career diplomat, civil society actor and tech entrepreneur. He was previously a Director on the ICANN Board (2010-2013), France's Thematic Ambassador and Special Envoy for the Information Society (2006-2010) and an active participant in the World Summit on the Information Society (2002-2005), where he promoted dialogue among civil society, private sector and governments. Bertrand is a frequent speaker in major Internet governance processes such as the Internet Governance Forum.

As an engineer, Bertrand was in the 1990s the Co-founder and President of the virtual reality company Virtools, now a subsidiary of Dassault Systèmes. Bertrand de La Chapelle is a graduate of Ecole Polytechnique (1978), Sciences Po Paris (1983), and Ecole Nationale d'Administration (1986).

Angie Drobnic Holan is the editor of PolitiFact. She previously was deputy editor, and before that a reporter for PolitiFact, helping launch the site in 2007. She was a member of the PolitiFact team that won the Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the 2008 election. She previously worked at newspapers in Florida, Alabama, Louisiana and New Mexico.

She holds a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University and a master’s of library science from the University of South Florida. Her undergraduate degree is from the Plan II liberal arts program at the University of Texas at Austin. She is a native of Louisiana and attended the Louisiana School for Math, Science and the Arts.

Jeff Jarvis is the Leonard Tow Professor of Journalistic Innovation and director of the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, where he also started the News Integrity Initiative. He is the author of "Geeks Bearing Gifts," "Public Parts," "What Would Google Do?," and "Gutenberg the Geek” and is cohost of the podcast “This Week in Google.” Previously, he was president and creative director of Advance.net, the online arm of Advance Publications; creator and founding editor of Entertainment Weekly; TV critic of TV Guide and People magazines; Sunday editor and associate publisher of the New York Daily News; a columnist for the San Francisco Examiner; and an editor for the Chicago Tribune.

Stephen is Legal Director at the Wikimedia Foundation, where he advises on copyright, privacy, free expression, and other internet law and policy topics. Stephen is co-creator of CollabMark, a trademark guide for open source software. He is also an active contributor to open source software projects, including a series of interactive visualizations on Wikipedia. Stephen’s main areas of interest are open source licensing and online platforms. Stephen graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the University of California, Hastings College of the Law.

Emma Llansó is the Director of CDT’s Free Expression Project, which works to promote law and policy that support users’ free expression rights in the United States and around the world. Emma leads CDT’s work in advancing speech-protective policies, which include legislative advocacy and amicus activity in the U.S. aimed at ensuring that online expression receives the highest level of protection under the First Amendment. Recognizing the crucial role played by Internet intermediaries in facilitating individuals’ expression, she works to preserve strong intermediary liability protections in the U.S. and to advance these key policies abroad.

Emma also leads the Free Expression Project’s work in developing content policy best practices with Internet content platforms and advocating for user-empowerment tools and other alternatives to government regulation of online speech. The Project’s work spans many subjects, including online child safety and children’s privacy, human trafficking, privacy and online reputation issues, counter-terrorism and “radicalizing” content, and online harassment. Emma is also a member of the Freedom Online Coalition’s Working Group on Privacy and Transparency Online, which is developing best practices for transparency reporting by governments and companies regarding government demands to Internet companies for content removal and access to user data. Emma works with CDT’s Global Internet Policy & Human Rights Project on advancing policies that promote free expression in global fora; she also works with the Global project in advocating for decentralized, multistakeholder approaches to Internet governance.

Emma earned a B.A. in anthropology from the University of Delaware and a J.D. from Yale Law School. Emma joined CDT in 2009 as the Bruce J. Ennis First Amendment Fellow; her fellowship project focused on legal and policy advocacy in support of minors’ First Amendment rights in the US. She is a member of the New York State Bar.

Katie Myers grew up on the Eastern seaboard and moved to Knoxville, Tennessee in 2014, where she completed her bachelor’s degree at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. There, she undertook participatory research in rural development in Appalachia. Katie’s work is led by her values of redistributive economics and resource sovereignty for marginalized people, and she has lent support to immigrants’ rights, anti-racist, environmental justice, and youth organizing projects both in Appalachia and elsewhere. She has also spent time in southern Mexico and the borderlands of Arizona, working in solidarity with the indigenous peoples of Mexico and Central America. Katie is currently working with residents of Cocke County, Tennessee to envision possibilities for cooperatively-owned ISPs in the region.

James Pethokoukis, a columnist and policy analyst, is the Dewitt Wallace Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he writes and edits the AEIdeas blog.

Before joining AEI, he was the Washington columnist for Reuters “Breakingviews,” the opinion and commentary wing of Thomson Reuters, and the business editor and economics columnist for US News & World Report.

Michelle Richardson is the Deputy Director of the Center for Democracy and Technology’s Freedom, Security, and Technology Project, where she works to ensure that government programs do not infringe on privacy and civil liberties. She is a recognized expert on how post-9/11 security policies can impact constitutional and human rights, and has successfully campaigned to reform the Patriot Act, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and government cybersecurity policies, among others.

Michelle has testified before Congress, advised numerous government agencies, and frequently appears in national press such as The Washington Post, The New York Times, NPR, The Los Angeles Times, Wired, and Politico. Recognized by The Hill as one of the most influential nonprofits lobbyists in Washington, she has led left-right coalitions to defend privacy in the face of ever-expanding government authorities.

Before joining CDT in 2017, Michelle led the American Civil Liberties Union’s preeminent legislative campaigns against overreaching surveillance programs for 10 years. She also served as a democratic counsel for the House Judiciary Committee where she worked on a range of anti-terrorism laws and policies including the Patriot Act, Intelligence Reform, warrantless wiretapping, detainee abuse, government secrecy, and terror prosecutions. She received her B.A. from the University of Colorado and her J.D. from American University, Washington College of Law.

Anne Schwieger works for the City of Boston Department of Innovation & Technology as Broadband and Digital Equity Advocate. In this role she supports the City of Boston in advancing access to affordable broadband connectivity, up-to-date digital tools, and the digital skills that Bostonians need to engage in educational, economic, and civic pursuits. Anne is a board member of the Boston Neighborhood Network and the National League of Cities Information Technology & Communications Federal Advocacy Committee. She holds a Master in City Planning from the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT and a BA in Biology and Society from Cornell University. Anne was named to the StateScoop Top Women in Technology 2018 list.

Abigail Slater is Special Assistant to the President for Technology, Telecom, and Cyber policy on the National Economic Council. Prior to her current role, she served for over three years as the General Counsel at the Internet Association and worked for a decade at the Federal Trade Commission. She trained as a lawyer in the London and Brussels offices of Freshfields law firm. She holds degrees from University College, Dublin and Oxford University and is an IAPP/US/EU certified privacy professional.

Susan Strachan is a Project Manager with the California State University (CSU), Chico Geographical Information Center (GIC), managing a portfolio of projects ranging from habitat restoration to broadband. She develops collaborative efforts with faculty and staff to address challenges in CSU, Chico’s rural service area, having funded and implemented projects that evaluated storm water treatment practices, restored degraded streams and wetlands, analyzed economic change associated with restoration of agricultural lands to habitat, and examined the role of broadband in rural economies. The GIC has a long history of research and agency collaboration on broadband, managing the California Broadband Map and implementing field testing for the Mobile Broadband Testing program at the California Public Utilities Commission. They facilitate the Upstate and Northeast California Connect Broadband Consortia and are implementing a planning project for eight rural communities to identify broadband strategies to serve businesses. A recent collaboration with the San Francisco Bay Chapter of the Internet Society implemented mobile broadband performance in farm fields, believed to be the first of its kind in the nation. Susan holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Virginia and M.A. in Geography: Environmental Planning and Resource Management from San Francisco State University.

Berin Szoka is the President of TechFreedom. Previously,he was a Senior Fellow and the Director of the Center for Internet Freedom at The Progress & Freedom Foundation.Before joining PFF, he was an Associate in the Communications Practice Group at Latham & Watkins LLP, where he advised clients on regulations affecting the Internet and telecommunications industries. Before joining Latham's Communications Practice Group, Szoka practiced at Lawler Metzger Milkman & Keeney, LLC, a boutique telecommunications law firm in Washington, and clerked for the Hon. H. Dale Cook, Senior U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Oklahoma. Szoka received his Bachelor's degree in economics from Duke University and his juris doctor from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he served as Submissions Editor of the Virginia Journal of Law and Technology. He is admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia and California (inactive).

Bio coming soon.

Suzanne Woolf is experienced in both the technical and policy aspects of the evolution of the Internet, particularly DNS and other network operations. She has held a variety of roles for the Internet Systems Consortium since 2002, currently including product management, strategic considerations for ISC's software and protocol development projects, and participation in Internet technical policy activities with ICANN, ARIN, and others.

As Technical operations manager for ICANN, Suzanne worked on the initial design and implementation of ICANN's internal network and providing operational support for ICANN's root nameserver. Earlier, she performed programming and systems administration for USC Information Sciences Institute. Her projects included programming and systems support, network engineering, and nameserver management.

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Dustin Phillips is the Co-Executive Director of ICANNWiki, coordinating the bottom-up development of a neutral and accessible resource on ICANN and Internet governance. Additionally, Dustin is the Executive Director of the Greater Washington DC Chapter of the Internet Society (ISOC-DC) and serves on the ICANN Fellowship Selection Committee and usTLD Stakeholder Council.

Romella joined the EEOC in October 2014. Prior to joining the EEOC, she worked for nearly seven years at the Internal Revenue Service, where she held several different positions related to policy and people initiatives. However, the bulk of her time at IRS was in Employment, Talent & Security, where she developed and implemented selection employment systems and evaluated their effectiveness. Before joining the Federal Government, she worked for The City University of New York (CUNY), where she managed the Civil Service recruitment and selection function for the University. Prior to working at the University, she worked at Aon Consulting, now Aon Hewitt, in product development and support; at Aon, she was responsible for the creation of new selection and employee valuation products that were sold to Fortune 500 companies.

Beyond by expertise in employment and selection policy and system design, she has prior organizational research experience. At Aon, she conducted research for the purpose of product innovation and improvement. Romella also worked as a Research Associate at The Research Foundation of CUNY, where her role was to perform research for the purposes of developing employment selection systems. Furthermore, she has prior leadership experience managing interdisciplinary research teams. At the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), she led the Fort Lauderdale/Greensboro Research Group in the Small Business/Self-Employed Division of IRS. In this capacity, she was primarily focused on external, customer-focused research, such as the effectiveness of the IRS’ offer-in-compromise program, how to reduce FTD alerts, and bankruptcy. Finally, she led the Human Capital research and analytics team that was focused on improving the internal operations of the organization.

Since joining EEOC, Romella has served as the technical expert, assisted with expert analysis, or consulted on the following notable cases.

BMW Manufacturing, LLC (Criminal History)

BNSF (Disability Discrimination)

Cintas Corp. (Age Discrimination)

Costco (Harassment/ Disability/ Personality Assessment)

Crothall (Criminal History)

Jet Stream (Religious Discrimination)

Local 580 (Racial Discrimination)

Parker Drilling (Disability Discrimination)

RCH/Luna Gaming (Age and Sex Discrimination)

Seasons 52 (Age Discrimination)

Sterling Jewelers (Sexual Harassment/Unequal Pay)

Texas Roadhouse (Age Discrimination)

Federal Aviation Administration (Sex and Age Discrimination)

U.S. Department of the Navy (Racial Discrimination)

Additionally, Romella served on the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ interagency workgroup to revise the Standard of Occupational Classification (SOC) manual and co-lead a team as part of OMB’s revisions to Directive 15, Standard of Race and Ethnic Standards for Federal Statistics and Administrative Reporting that was tasked into researching the feasibility and utility of creating a new minimum reporting category for Middle Eastern/North African to the current list of ethnic/racial groups. Currently, Romella serves on the EEO Tab and represents EEOC at the Department of State’s Interagency Language Roundtable.

Outside of her day job, Romella’s hobbies have included volunteering to help organize the annual Internet Governance Forum USA Conference for the past two years. This year, she serves in a leadership role, as the Wrangler, providing support to the IGF-USA Co-Chairs. Her other hobbies have included the development of Adult Storytime for Professionals in 2016-2017, which was a book review program, and Culture NOW from 2015-2016, which focused on all aspects of “Culture”. Finally, Romella took a voiceover class at Fairfax Public Access in 2017.