$65B to Advance Digital Equity:
Leverage Challenges & Opportunities for State & Local Funders

July 20, 2022 | 3-4:30 pm ET/12-1:30 pm PT

MODERATOR

An-Me Chung, Ph.D.
Director, Teaching, Learning & Tech
Strategic Advisor, Education Policy Program
New America
@anmechung | @NewAmerica

An-Me Chung is the Director of Teaching, Learning, and Tech and Strategic Advisor to the Education Policy Program at New America. She has extensive experience building networks and spearheading public-private partnerships and alliances with CEOs, senior government leaders, philanthropists, researchers, technologists, policymakers, and community leaders and practitioners to bring equitable education and technology opportunities to all young people.

An-Me has led organizations including the Dr. Seuss Foundation, Knowledge Alliance, Amplifier, and Digital Harbor Foundation through organizational development and strategic planning. As a CSforALL Fellow, she spearheaded the development of ecosystems across the country for equitable computer science education. At the Mozilla Foundation, she forged partnerships and led the development of global digital literacy and 21st century skills standards and credentials, and core curriculum. She brought her skills in philanthropy and research to the MacArthur Foundation where she managed initiatives designed to improve student learning in digital media through partnerships with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the White House Office of Science and Technology.

Prior to this, she led the education grantmaking at the C.S. Mott Foundation partnered with the U.S. DOE through the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations to build the afterschool field by supporting training and technical assistance, research and evaluation, policy development, and public awareness and outreach. While at the National Institute on Out-of-School Time at the Center for Research on Women, Wellesley College, she directed the Save the Children Out-of-School Time Rural Initiative.

Board service: Illinois Community College Board, Framework Institute, InventED Advisory Group, Starfish Institute Advisory Board, Bridgebuilder Cinematic Arts Programs, Midwest Chinese Family Camp, Nomi Network, IMS Global Digital Credentials Executive Board, Hive Digital Media Learning Fund, Grantmakers for Education, Community Foundation of Greater Flint, and the Out-of-School Funders Network. An-Me is a Presidential Leadership Scholar and alumni advisor, a program convened by Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush to bring together leaders who share a commitment to help solve society’s greatest challenges.

She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Columbia University and holds a PhD from Yale University, a BS from Washington University in St. Louis.

PRESENTERS

Cheri Coryea
Manager, Digital Access for All Initiative The Patterson Foundation
@ThePattersonFdn | @chericoryea

Cheri Coryea’s public sector experience spans over 30 years, and while the majority of it has been in Manatee County, Florida, the nature of the work has allowed her to build bonds regionally and nationally with thought and management leader networks. The last 14 years of Cheri’s public sector work included roles as county administrator, deputy county administrator, and first department director of the Neighborhood Services Department for Manatee County Government. She currently serves as Manager of the Digital Access for All Initiative at The Patterson Foundation.

Highly regarded as a trusted and effective relationship builder among all aspects of the community, Cheri spent the bulk of her public sector work in the human services and community services field. Cheri served as the first Children’s Services Coordinator for the county, bringing to life the Children’s Services dedicated millage programs in 1990. Today, the Children’s Services programs target children ages 0-17 and their families who live in Manatee County through the grant work of over 100 different nonprofit agencies. These programs serve at-risk and economically disadvantaged children subject to abuse, neglect, and abandonment. In 2016, Cheri led the charge to change the county grant funding process from funder to investor. To date, more than $150 million has been provided to local nonprofit agencies that yield significant results to improve children and family outcomes.

In 2007, Cheri was tapped to create the Neighborhood Services Department. In 2014, she facilitated the merger of two departments— Neighborhood Services and Community Services—focusing on programs from infants, neighborhood planning, behavioral health, and low-income medical services to County Indigent Burial. Over 2,400 different neighborhoods are now engaged with their local government through various virtual tools, neighborhood action plans, newsletters, and libraries. Citizens now feel they are making a difference.

Her strategic planning expertise led to the first Economic Development Division in the County, focusing on job creation, retention, and incentives for all business types. With the motto of “At Your Service,” Cheri helped cut through the red tape and developed an expedited environment of business-friendly government that has added over 4,600 high-wage and high-skilled jobs in Manatee County since 2009. She continues to strive to positively impact ALICE through her involvement with the United Way Suncoast.

While county administrator, Cheri recognized the large portion of potential retirees in the upcoming years and emphasized the development of young professionals to enhance the county’s workforce. With a few talented county-employed young professionals, Cheri built the Manatee Millennial Movement (M3) into a nationally recognized force to be reckoned with, increasing Manatee County’s millennial workforce from 17% to 27% in four years. Adding a project-driven county internship program in three seasons has allowed the county to advance the use of technology, GIS planning, energy efficiency, parks, preserves, and citizen engagement while attracting and retaining highly motivated students to the area.

Shayna Englin, MPP
CEO of 42 Comms Director, Digital Equity Initiative
California Community Foundation
@calfund

Shayna Englin is the founder and CEO of 42 Comms, a strategic advisory firm, and is the Director of the Digital Equity Initiative at the California Community Foundation. Shayna spent more than two decades earning her stripes in the take-no-prisoners world of politics, where she learned to find a way or make one in every circumstance. She founded, scaled, and sold two political communications firms, published sector-leading research, served as the Managing Director for North America for Change.org, built strategic communications for Kernel, a neurotech company, and for a variety of mission-driven venture funds, and advised investors and startup leaders on strategy, communications, and public impact. Shayna is a published expert in leadership and change management and was named an “Influencer 50” by Campaigns & Elections magazine.

Amina Fazlullah
Equity Policy Counsel
Common Sense
@commonsense | @amina_fazlullah

Amina Fazlullah is the Equity Policy Counsel in Common Sense’s D.C. office where she works on a range of issues including privacy, expanding access to technology, and digital well-being. Prior to joining Common Sense, Amina was a tech policy fellow at Mozilla, where she worked to promote broadband connectivity in underserved communities around the world. Amina has also worked with the Benton Foundation, U.S. Public Interest Research Group, for the Honorable Chief Judge James M. Rosenbaum of the U.S. District Court of Minnesota, and at the FCC.

Jack Lynch
Chief Operating Officer
EducationSuperHighway @EdSuperHighway

Jack Lynch is the Chief Operating Officer at EducationSuperHighway, a national nonprofit with the mission to close the digital divide for the 18 million households that have access to the Internet but can’t afford to connect. It focuses on America’s most unconnected communities, where more than 25% of people don’t have Internet. Between 2012 and 2020, EducationSuperHighway helped to connect 47 million K-12 students to the minimum speed necessary for digital learning and secured commitments from governors in all 50 states to upgrade their schools for the 21st century.

Jack began his career as a hardware engineer at Cisco Systems but was driven to make a career change by a strong belief in the power of technology to create equitable opportunities for everyone. Jack has an Electrical Engineering degree from the University of Southern California’s Viterbi School of Engineering.

 

Ashley Pollard
K-12 Digital Access Program Manager
City of Philadelphia @PHLInnovation

Ashley Pollard is the K–12 Digital Access Program Manager for the City of Philadelphia. In this role, she leads PHLConnectED—the City’s initiative to provide free internet access to pre-K-12 families—and maintains its public-private partnerships. Launched in August 2020, the program has made over 21,000 wireline and mobile hotspot internet connections. Ashley served as the Co-Chair of the K–12 Work Stream of the City’s Digital Equity Coordinating Committee and is charged with fulfilling the City’s Digital Equity Plan goals related to school-aged households.

Ashley started her career as second grade teacher in Durham, NC and is passionate about supporting government accountability in providing a sound education for marginalized students. She received her Bachelor of Arts from Duke University and her Master of Public Policy from Georgetown University.

 

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