2007 Susan G. Hadden Pioneer Awards Luncheon
Friday, February 9, 2007
National Press Club, Washington, DC
2007 HONOREES
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| Charles Benton accepting the Hadden award from APT Founding Chair Barbara O’Connor |
Charles Benton
Charles Benton, a longstanding champion of public broadcasting, public information and public debate, has served as Chairman of the Benton Foundation since its founding in 1981. Under his leadership, the foundation has been at the forefront of the telecommunications policy arena, articulating a public interest vision for the digital age.
For example, in 1994, Charles Benton was the driving force behind the Public Interest Summit, a gathering of 700 nonprofit leaders to claim a stake in shaping the new media environment in cooperation with the White House. The Benton Foundation has also served as a laboratory for exploring the potential of new communications technologies and techniques to help solve social problems. The intent has been to incubate projects and build them to independence, as in the case of Connect for Kids, or bring them full-circle to completion, as in the case of Benton projects Open Studio and Debate America.
The Benton Foundation's signature initiative over the last few years has been the 21st century skills initiative that highlights and promotes strategic interventions to raise the skills of underserved youth and young adults, enhancing their employability and strengthening civic engagement through new media.
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| Charles Benton with Colleagues Jim Kohlenberger, Karen Menichelli and Cecilia Garcia |
In February 2004, Benton launched the Center for Media & Community at the Education Development Center, with the goal of continuing to expand its work around the digital divide and promoting 21st Century literacy. Two Benton projects became part of the new center: Digital Divide Network and Digital Opportunity Channel.
In addition to his work at the foundation, Charles Benton was appointed by President Carter in 1978 as Chairman of the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science and as Chairman of the first White House Conference on Library and Information Services, held in November of 1979. In 1997, President Clinton appointed him as a member of the Presidential Advisory Committee on the Public Interest Obligations of Digital Television Broadcasters.
Throughout his career, Mr. Benton has been an active board member and advisor for organizations in the arts, education and communications and currently serves on the Consumer Advisory Committee of the FCC in Washington DC.
See Acceptance Remarks by Charles Benton
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| Congressman Edward J. Markey Accepting Hadden Award from APT Board Member Karen Peltz Strauss |
The Honorable Edward J. Markey
Edward J. Markey has constructed an extraordinary legislative record since his first election to the United States Congress in 1976. As the highest Ranking Democrat on the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, he has shaped more than 20 years of telecommunications policy.
He currently serves as the Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, the co-chair of bipartisan Caucuses on Privacy, on Alzheimer's disease, and on Nonproliferation.
Representative Markey is also a key Congressional policymaker on energy issues, a leader in providing privacy protections for personal information such as medical records, financial records, and purchases on-line, and a champion for environmental initiatives to preserve our wildlife refuges, and national parks, clean air and clean water. As a leader of energy policy, he has led the fight for higher fuel economy standards for our cars and SUVs and against drilling in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge.
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| Representative Edward J. Markey “Yields Time” to Representative Jan Schakowsky for Remarks Honoring Charles Benton |
His list of accomplishments in promoting telecommunications access for people with disabilities is particularly long and impressive. He championed efforts to secure hearing aid compatibility in the 1980s, telecommunications relay services, accessible telecommunications equipment and services, and televised closed captioning in the 1990s. In the past few years, he pushed for restoration of video description mandates and access to Internet-enabled products and services. He has blazed the trail in virtually every struggle to ensure that people with disabilities are not forgotten as new technologies define the way our nation communicates and receives information. His unwavering loyalty to this issue has successfully enabled people with disabilities to enhance their independence and productivity, empowering them to become active citizens in our society.
For all that he has done to advance this access as a civil right, the Alliance for Public Technology is pleased to recognize Congressman Markey with the Susan G. Hadden Pioneer Award.
See Introductory Remarks by Karen Peltz Strauss
See Acceptance Remarks by Congressman Markey
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| Award Presenter Sally Marietta of IBM (left) with SeniorNet Board Member Michele Williams, Executive Director Kristin Fabos, Chairman Leslie Smith and Board Member Langley Spurlock |
SeniorNet
A true pioneer, SeniorNet has been providing older adults with education for and access to computer technologies to enhance their lives and enable them to share their knowledge and wisdom since 1986.
The organization has benefited millions of seniors since its founding and currently supports about 200 Learning Centers throughout the U.S. and in other countries. It also publishes newsletters and has developed an extensive variety of instructional materials. In addition, SeniorNet: holds regional conferences; collaborates in research on older adults and technology; and operates a web site at http://www.seniornet.org, where individuals continue to learn and to share information.
SeniorNet members learn and teach others to use computers and communications technologies to accomplish a variety of tasks. They learn to touch up photos and send and receive them in email, to desktop publish documents, write their autobiographies, manage personal and financial records, communicate with others across the country and the world and serve their communities. SeniorNet members share a desire to continue learning and a willingness to contribute their knowledge to others.
SeniorNet grew out of a research project funded by the Markle Foundation to determine how computers and telecommunications could enhance the lives of older adults. Since that time, SeniorNet has grown into an independent, international, volunteer-based nonprofit organization that is one of the world's leading technology educators of adults 50+. Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, SeniorNet has an international membership of computer users, hosts a thriving online community on the SeniorNet website at www.seniornet.org.
To accept the award on behalf of SeniorNet will be Kristin Fabos, Executive Director of the organization. Fabos joined SeniorNet as its Executive Director in October 2004 after serving a two-year term on its Board of Directors. Prior to SeniorNet, Fabos was an advance press manager for the ATHENS 2004 Olympic Torch Relay. In that role, she served as a spokesperson for the Athens Organizing Committee (ATHOC) working with local government officials, national Olympic committees and international media outlets in eight of the relay's 33 worldwide cities. Prior to that, Fabos had a 13-year career in high technology PR and marketing, developing and executing strategic marketing and communications plans for companies including SonicWALL, Adobe Systems, NEC Computer Systems Division, and Microsoft, among others.
SPEAKERS AND PRESENTERS
Barbara O’Connor, Ph.D. (Welcome & Introduction) is the Founding Chairperson of the Alliance for Public Technology. She currently serves as Professor of Communications and the Director of the Institute for the Study of Politics and Media at California State University, Sacramento. Dr. O’Connor was appointed by the California State Legislature as the chairperson of the State Education Technology Committee. She was also chair of the Pacific Telesis Intelligent Network Task Force Committee. In 1992, Dr. O’Connor was appointed to the Federal Communications Commission’s Network Reliability Council, the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment’s Study on International Networks, and the Bellcore Advisory Council.
Kenneth R. Peres, Ph.D. (Closing Remarks) is APT’s President and Research Economist for the Communications Workers of America. In relation to telecommunications, he has represented CWA in many proceedings before the New York Public Service Commission and the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, worked on regulatory legislation, and conducted analyses of service quality performance. He has served as economist for the Northern Cheyenne Tribe, the Montana House Committee on Economic Development and the Montana Alliance for Progressive Policy. Mr. Peres has held teaching positions at the University of Montana, St. John’s University, Chief Dull Knife College and the City University of New York. He obtained a Ph.D. in economics from the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research in New York City.
Karen Peltz Strauss (Award Presenter) has worked on legal and policy issues concerning the rights of people with disabilities for more than two decades. Ms. Peltz Strauss currently provides consulting services to companies, service providers, consumer groups, and research institutes on matters concerning telecommunications and technology access. She is also the author of A New Civil Right: Telecommunications Equality for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Americans.
From 1999 to 2001, Ms. Peltz Strauss served as Deputy Bureau Chief of the Federal Communications Commission's Consumer Information Bureau, where she managed the Commission's consumer and disability access programs. In that position, she oversaw the creation of the Commission's first Disabilities Rights Office.
Before joining the FCC, Ms. Peltz Strauss spent many years spearheading national policy on matters concerning telecommunications access by individuals with disabilities. Ms. Peltz Strauss co-authored and guided efforts to achieve passage of several pieces of federal legislation. These included Sections 255 and 305 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, Title IV of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Hearing Aid Compatibility Act of 1988. Ms. Peltz Strauss holds a JD from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and an LLM from the Georgetown University Law Center.
MEDIA COVERAGE
Press Releases
Articles
February 9, 2007 – Technology Daily, “Privacy: Rep. Markey Urges FCC Probe Into Use of Phone Data.”
"Telecommunications law requires that the privacy of all consumers be protected," Edward Markey of Massachusetts, the head of the House Energy and Commerce Telecommunications at an event where he received an award from the Alliance for Public Technology. http://nationaljournal.com/about/technologydaily/
If you know of other media mentions of this event, please contact Maytal Selzer.
