Austin Connects

Community Technology Symposium
January 12, 2010
Austin, Texas

Key Note Speaker – David Keyes, Community Technology Program Manager, City of Seattle Department of Information Technology

David has directed Seattle’s digital inclusion initiatives since 1997 and has been involved in the crossroads of neighborhood development, education, community technology and media for thirty years. He was instrumental in launching a number of leading programs, including Technology Matching Fund grants, Seniors Training Seniors in Technology, IT Indicators for a Technology Health Community, and PugetSoundOff.org, an award winning youth civic engagement project. He serves on the governing board of Washington state’s Communities Connect Network and is a member of the Washington State Access to Justice Board Technology Committee. He has served on Washington State’s High Speed Internet Strategy Work Group and was on the national boards of CTCNet and the Alliance for Community Media. He is also a member of the city’s Race and Social Justice Public Engagement committee, working to build staff and community capacity for diverse, meaningful public engagement.

David is a graduate of the University of Washington and Antioch College. When not juggling projects and budgets, he’s been seen juggling balls and clubs instead.

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Stacy Bouwman, Director of Adult Workforce Programs, Skillpoint Alliance
Stacy Bouwman, Director of Adult Workforce, has been with Skillpoint Alliance and its predecessor, Capital Area Training Foundation, for nine years. Initially a part-time basic computer skills instructor in the evenings, she realized she had found her calling and quit her day job within four months to work for Skillpoint’s Computer Technology Training Centers (CTTC). Within a year she was a site coordinator.

In 2004, she began serving as managing director for both CTTC locations at Travis and Reagan high schools, empowering people to use computers to benefit personally and professionally. In 2008 Stacy oversaw the creation of a third lab in Skillpoint’s downtown offices, procuring $92,000 in in-kind goods and services. In her tenure, she has secured more than $500,000 for CTTC programs from a variety of resources including Microsoft, the City of Austin, C4ALL, and Worksource. The CTTC program, named a National Best Training Model by the Ford Foundation, has served 4,500 individuals, filled more than 18,000 classroom seats and provided 350,000-plus hours of service in the last decade.

Stacy studied mathematics and computer science at Southwest Texas State University. She is a long-time member of Community Technology Centers Network (CTCNet) and Travis High School Advisory Council, for which she is secretary. She also is a Policy and Advisory Council Member of AccessWorks, an arm of Knowbility, a nonprofit that ensures availability of accessible information technology for people with disabilities.

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Rodney Gibbs, Digital Media Council Chair
An entrepreneur committed to expanding professional opportunities for the game development community, Rodney has co-founded two studios. His first, Fizz Factor, shipped 17 PC, DS and PSP titles over eight years under Rodney’s leadership. In 2009 he launched Ricochet Labs, which will release its first title in 2010. Before entering the game industry, Rodney was a screenwriter on a variety of TV programs for Fox, Showtime, and other networks. He is a board member of the Austin Film Society, KUT, and Skillpoint Alliance, where he chairs the Digital Media Council. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Rice University and his master’s from the University of Texas at Austin, where he was a James Michener Fellow.

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Sheena Harden, Program Coordinator, City of Austin
Sheena Colbath Harden serves as the Program Coordinator for the City of Austin’s Grant for Technology Opportunities Program under the Community Technology Initiative. She manages the selection, contracts, publicity, web site, and reporting for the program, which supports programs that foster digital inclusion in Austin. Her other responsibilities include program development, public speaking, graphic and web design, event planning, research and writing. Sheena serves as the Communications Committee Chair for the Texas Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (TATOA) and is responsible for producing TATOA’s quarterly newsletter. She assisted in the planning of and created the conference materials for the TATOA conferences for the last six years. Sheena received the 2009 City of Austin Public Service Recognition Certificate of Appreciation from Austin’s Mayor. Her web design work won 2009 1st Place Winner in Knowbility’s Accessibility Internet Rally. She was nominated for the 2006 South by Southwest Dewey Winburne Community Service Award and the Outstanding Community Affairs Executive of the Year in 2003 by the Association of Fundraising Professionals. Sheena graduated cum laude from Texas State University with a bachelor’s degree in Geography & Planning where she focused on City Planning and Environmental Studies. In her spare time she is a musician, crafter, gamer and blogger. She lives in Austin, Texas with her husband Mark and four cats.

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Samantha Hechtman, Special Projects Coordinator, Texas Legal Services Center – Texaslawhelp.org

Samantha Hechtman started at Texas Legal Services Center in January of 2008 as the full time paralegal for the Victim’s Initiative for Counseling Advocacy and Restoration of the Southwest (VICARS) project that provides assistance to victims of identity theft and financial fraud. Samantha has been an integral part of forming VICARS policies, procedures, and publications. She has assisted over five hundred clients in addition to serving as the outreach coordinator for VICARS.

In January of 2010 Samantha is starting as the Special Projects Coordinator for Texas Legal Services Center. She will be overseeing the maintenance and improvements of TexasLawHelp.org and TexasLawyersHelp.org. Texas Law Help will be adding several new features to improve access to legal resources as well as assist pro se litigants. She looks forward to this new project and continues to enjoy the wonderful non-profit community of Austin.

She received her B.A. with a major in International Relations from Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee.

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Linda Litowsky, Executive Director of channelAustin
Linda Litowsky has worked professionally in film and video production since 1975. She was first hired at the ABC affiliate, KVUE and later went to work at the NBC affiliate, KXAN, where she was Director of Creative Services and Public Service. She has worked with non-profits and for the Texas Commission for the Blind before working free lance for 20 years.

Her professional expertise lies in documentaries, and she has also produced a Survivor series for the Swiss.

Linda is currently the Executive Director of channelAustin, our community media center.

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Ana Mejia-Dietche, Director of the Health Industry Steering Committee, Central Texas at Workforce Solutions Capital Area Workforce Board
Ana Mejia-Dietche is Director of the Health Industry Steering Committee of Central Texas at Workforce Solutions Capital Area Workforce Board (HISC). The HISC is co-chaired by Seton Family of Hospitals and St. David’s HealthCare. Membership includes non-profit and government entities, universities, colleges and school districts. During over 10 years in existence, the HISC’s role as a healthcare workforce intermediary supporting the goal of meeting the healthcare employers’ need for a trained workforce has received national recognition. Ana’s background includes experience in government, nonprofit and legal organizations. She is also an adjunct professor in the Business and Technical Communications program at Austin Community College.

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Laura Morrison, Austin City Council
Laura Morrison was elected to serve as an Austin City Council Member in June of 2008.

Prior to taking office, Laura served as a community volunteer in many roles. She was President of the Austin Neighborhoods Council (ANC) which provided an opportunity to get to know Austinites all across the city and to become familiar with a broad range of issues. Laura also served with several organizations dealing with areas of particular interest to her, including affordable housing and health and human service concerns. To name a few – Community Action Network Community Council, HousingWorks Policy Committee and the Pandemic Flu Taskforce.

As a Council Member Laura is the Chair of the City Council’s Emerging Technology and Telecommunications Committee.  Laura’s professional career has included working as an engineer for Lockheed Martin, as a consultant in export compliance, and more recently, in the field of pandemic flu preparedness. She holds a Graduate Certificate in Community Preparedness and Disaster Management from the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; a Master’s degree in Mathematics from the University of California, San Diego; and a Bachelor’s in Mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley.

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Eve Richter, Emerging Technologies Coordinator, City of Austin
Eve Richter is the Emerging Technologies Coordinator in the Economic Development Division at the City of Austin. In that capacity she helps small businesses, startups, entrepreneurs and individuals in the tech sectors to grow and be successful in the Austin community. She also works to bring new businesses in her target industries to the City. She refers to her work as part business consulting, part matchmaking, part sales and marketing, and part miscellaneous weirdness.

She has undergraduate and master’s degrees in business administration, government, and public affairs/public policy, studying at both California State University Sacramento and UT Austin. She was raised in New England and California, and will admit to being born in New York if pushed. Despite being a Yankee and a Californian, she loves her adopted home in Austin, and is excited that her work helps to create jobs and investment in such a wonderful and creative community. She lives in the Cherrywood neighborhood with her 2 lovely dogs, one handsome cat, and one somewhat lovely significant other.

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Chip Rosenthal, Chair, Austin Community Technology & Telecommunications Commission

Chip Rosenthal has been developing systems and tools based on open source software and open network protocols for over 20 years. He is the owner of Unicom Systems Development, a provider of technology consulting and contract development services.

Chip is a recognized leader of the community technology movement in Texas. He is a founder of the longest-running free Internet training program in Texas. He helped develop the award-winning Austin Bloggers web site. In 2005, he helped create SaveMuniWireless.Org, which defeated legislation to ban community wireless networks in Texas. He currently chairs the Austin Community Technology and Telecommunications Commission, which advises the Austin City Council on technology matters.

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Sharron Rush, Founder & Executive Director, Knowbility
Sharron Rush is the co-founder and Executive Director of Knowbility, a nonprofit advocacy and training organization dedicated to ensuring that people with disabilities have access to the technology tools they need to participate in society. Sharron believes strongly in the power of technology to support the independence of people with disabilities – and in the value of dynamic, ongoing collaboration to strengthen communities and ensure inclusion. She has led Knowbility to national recognition, including appearances on the Oprah Winfrey TV show, “Best Practice” feature at the National Labor Skills Summit, and recognition for excellence and innovation by the Peter F. Drucker Foundation.She received the Dewey Winburne Award for Community Service through Interactive Media in 2002, is a ComputerWorld Laureate, and was named a Community Tech Champion by the Congressional Black Caucus. Sharron’s book, Maximum Accessibility was cowritten with Dr. John Slatin and is recognized as a definitive web accessibility resource. She is a frequent speaker at national education and technology conferences on issues of technology access.

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Karen Vargas, MS, Consumer Health Outreach Coordinator, National Network of Libraries of Medicine

As the Consumer Health Outreach Coordinator of the NN/LM SCR, Karen Vargas is responsible for coordinating, promoting, and implementing consumer health information programs in Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. She also identifies populations where there is a need to introduce consumer health information and identifies existing consumer health collaborations and programs.  She teaches a variety of classes on consumer health issues for the general public, librarians, and health professionals and manages subcontracted outreach programs in the five-state region.  Previously, Karen was a branch manager at Houston Public Library and a reference librarian at Harris County Public Library. Karen participated in a fellowship program at the Library of Congress in 1996, received her MS in Library Science from the University of North Texas in 1997, and her BA from Oberlin College.

The National Network of Libraries of Medicine, South Central Region is a program funded by the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health under contract with the Houston Academy of Medicine-Texas Medical Center Library.