KEYNOTE: Connecting the Unconnected - A Panel on the Importance and Future of Digital Inclusion

Robert E. Branson. Esq. is the President and CEO of the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC), a non-partisan, national nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting and preserving equal opportunity and civil rights in the mass media, telecom and broadband industries, and closing the digital divide.

Prior to joining MMTC, Branson served as Of Counsel at Empire Consulting Group a strategic business and public policy firm serving leading technology, wireless, broadcast and other industry clients. He brings his unique perspective as someone who has worked inside and outside government and who understands the challenges ahead in the diverse world we are creating in corporate America.

In his corporate career, most recently, he was an Associate General Counsel with Verizon Communications. In that position, he had various responsibilities, including the 5G rollout in the Washington, DC area, privacy regulations, and relationship building with leaders in the federal and state governments. He also coordinated with trade associations and internally with other legal, public policy and business groups.

He has been the General Counsel of the Association of Local Television Stations, Chief Legal Counsel of Post-Newsweek Stations and an Assistant General Counsel at the National Association of Broadcasters. He also has worked at the Federal Communications Commission as a Senior Legal Advisor to a Commissioner.

Evan Marwell is Founder and CEO of EducationSuperHighway; the leading non-profit focused on closing the digital divide in America’s most unconnected communities. In eight years, EducationSuperHighway closed the digital divide in America’s K-12 schools – connecting nearly 47 million students in 99.7% of America’s classrooms to high-speed broadband. To accomplish this, Evan secured commitments from 85 governors from all 50 states to upgrade their schools for the 21st century and $2.5 billion per year of federal funding to make these commitments a reality. A recipient of the San Francisco Chronicle’s Visionary of the Year award and a serial entrepreneur, Evan launched companies over the last 25 years in the telecom, software, and hedge fund industries. Evan is an honors graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School, an advisor to high-potential social entrepreneurs, a board member at Direct Relief and Recidiviz, and the board chair of myAgro, an NGO helping smallholder farmers in Africa move out of poverty.

Joi is a domestic legal policy expert, political strategist, and former Chief of Staff to United States Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York. After leaving the Senate, she relaunched J.O.I. Strategies, a consulting firm that develops strategies for organizations and companies seeking to achieve Justice, Opportunity, and Inclusion for America's underserved communities, beginning with women and persons of color.

Previously, Joi served as Director of Equal Pay Today, a Project of Equal Rights Advocates, and Senior Policy Counsel at Equal Rights Advocates where she focused on strategies to close the long-standing gender and racial wage gap and engage new constituencies in the fight for equal pay. Over a twenty-year career, Joi has held senior roles in the Obama Administration, as a senior advisor to the Chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the U.S. Senate Democratic Policy Committee (Senate DPC), and the American Constitution Society for Law & Policy. Joi began her career at the former Baach Robinson & Lewis PLLC and the Democratic National Committee. She is a graduate of Howard University and Harvard Law School.

Licy Do Canto, a veteran of public policy, corporate strategy, health care communications and diversity and inclusion, is managing director of APCO Worldwide’s Washington D.C. office headquarters and mid-Atlantic region lead. A well respected expert in public health and health care policy, with nearly three decades of experience at the international, national, state and local levels across the nonprofit, philanthropic, corporate and government sectors, Mr. Do Canto is an accomplished, values-driven leader with unparalleled experience in developing and leading integrated public affairs campaigns combining strategic communications, public relations, political/legislative initiatives, policy, coalition building, grassroots efforts and advocacy. Mr. Do Canto has held a wide range of positions and has worked across diverse sectors and industries over the course of his successful career, making him uniquely qualified to understand and support leaders and organization to successfully navigate both the opportunities and the diplomatic, technical, and multifaceted industry challenges with which they are confronted. Mr. Do Canto has vast inside knowledge of the Washington political process, and deep substantive experience on a wide range of public policy issues from public health, health care and social impact to immigration, trade and economic development.