Overview

January 19

Not everyone is thriving in the digital era.

Many homes in America still don’t have adequate internet to access critical online resources such as telehealth, hybrid learning, remote work, social services, etc. Some families cannot afford to buy a computer and pay the internet subscription costs. Others lack the interest or knowledge to use these resources.

With unprecedented funding opportunities available, governments can work to find sustainable solutions to this problem and ensure their communities are positioned for future success.

Join Governing and Cisco on January 19 at 11 a.m. Pacific/2 p.m. Eastern for one hour as we discuss solutions and strategies on how to make the internet more accessible for all constituents.

We’ll cover:
- Building a strategy for increasing digital equity within your community
- Solutions for addressing accessibility and affordability
- Funding sources that are available

Speakers

Abel Ramirez

Business Solutions Architect, Cisco

Abel Ramirez is a Cisco Business Solutions Architect for Cisco’s US Public Sector organization supporting State & Local Government as well as Higher Education customers. He has over 25 years of experience in the communication and information technology industry. In his current role, Abel leads strategic customer engagements that deliver solution architecture design across Cisco’s portfolio to help bridge the digital divide. Prior to joining Cisco in 2015 Abel held various roles in Services, Product Development, and Sales providing network architectural solutions across multiple customer verticals (Enterprise, Government & Education, Financial, and Service Provider).

Albert Garcia

Business Development Manager for Broadband, Cisco

Albert Garcia has been with Cisco since July 1999 and is currently the Business Development Manager (BDM) for Broadband in the US Public Sector Organization. As the BDM, Albert is dedicated to leading the acceleration of solutions that our public sector customers are looking for to solve the digital divide. Major technology trends such as 5G, Long Haul Wireless, Routed Optical and other technologies offer new paradigm for our customers to meet the growing demand of their constituents. Prior to this role, Albert lead regional sales in the NYC Education market. In that position, he and his team focused on understanding the challenges of educators and develop innovative solutions to solve customer challenges. Prior to that role, Albert was the Director of Sales Operations for Public Sector East. In this role, he helped shape sales strategy and operational efficiency to support our customers. Prior to that role, Albert lead various roles in sales engineering where he and his team architected solutions to meet our customers challenges.

Mitchell Gorsen

Public Funding Advisor, Cisco

Mitchell is an attorney specializing in state and local government contracts and the funding for the purchase of information technology and broadband.

William (Bill) Rials, Ph.D. — Moderator

Senior Fellow, Center for Digital Government

William (Bill) Rials, Ph.D., is a professor and associate director (department chair) of the Tulane University School of Professional Advancement IT and Cybersecurity Program, where he focuses on continually delivering and updating the program curriculum based on innovative and emerging technologies. Before transitioning to academia and higher education, he had a diverse gov tech career delivering value to state agencies, local governments, and law enforcement agencies throughout the state of Mississippi. He has served in CIO, CTO, and CISO roles for local governments and also in various leadership positions within the state of Mississippi’s IT organization as a deputy to the state CIO. Dr. Rials holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Belhaven University, a master’s degree in computer information systems and cybersecurity from Missouri State University, as well as a Ph.D. in higher education administration and public administration from Jackson State University. His dissertation research involved the critical factors that affect the adoption of cloud services within the public sector. He is a noted expert in the IT and cybersecurity space and is frequently quoted by national media outlets. He is also a frequent contributor to national IT government organizations such as NASTD and NASCIO.

Webinar

Driving Digital Equity -- New Funding Opportunities, New Strategies