Director, Advanced Communications Law and Policy Institute, New York Law School
Charles M. Davidson is a Director of the Advanced Communications Law and Policy Institute (ACLP) at New York Law School. Charles oversees all aspects of the program, including its focus on broadband policy. The ACLP has published a number of papers and has hosted interdisciplinary public policy events on an array of broadband issues, with a particular emphasis on promoting broadband adoption and utilization.
Prior to joining the ACLP, Mr. Davidson served as a state regulatory utility commissioner and held a variety of positions in government and the private sector. His government work included serving as the Executive Director of Florida’s Information Technology Taskforce and as the Staff Director of the state’s first Committee on Information Technology. In the private sector, Mr. Davidson was an attorney in the New York offices of Baker & McKenzie and subsequently Duane Morris. He also served as the Chairman of ITFlorida, a nonprofit organization that promotes innovation in the state’s high-tech sector.
Mr. Davidson speaks and writes frequently on technology and public policy issues, and has provided expert testimony before numerous state and federal bodies, including the U.S. House of Representatives and the Federal Communications Commission. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate, Mr. Davidson holds a Masters of Law in Trade Regulation from New York University, a Masters in International Business from Columbia University, and undergraduate and Juris Doctorate degrees from the University of Florida, where he served as a fellowship instructor at the College of Law. He also served as a Special Professor of Law at Hofstra University School of Law.
President, The Free State Foundation
Randolph J. May is Founder and President of The Free State Foundation. The Free State Foundation is an independent, non-profit free market-oriented think tank founded in 2006.
From October 1999-May 2006, May was a Senior Fellow and Director of Communications Policy Studies at The Progress & Freedom Foundation, a Washington, DC-based think tank. Prior to joining PFF, he practiced communications, administrative, and regulatory law as a partner at major national law firms. From 1978 to 1981, May served as Assistant General Counsel and Associate General Counsel at the Federal Communication Commission.
May has held numerous leadership positions in bar associations. He is a past Chair of the American Bar Association’s Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. Mr. May also has served as a Public Member of the Administrative Conference of the United States and currently is a Senior Fellow at ACUS.
Mr. May has published more than two hundred articles and essays on communications, administrative and constitutional law topics. He is author of A Call for a Radical New Communications Policy: Proposals for Free Market Reform, and co-author of #CommActUpdate: A Communications Law Fit for the Digital Age and The Constitutional Foundations of Intellectual Property. Mr. May is editor of two books, Communications Law and Policy in the Digital Age: The Next Five Years and New Directions in Communications Policy. In addition, he is the co-editor of two other books, Net Neutrality or Net Neutering: Should Broadband Internet Services Be Regulated? and Communications Deregulation and FCC Reform. In the past, Mr. May has written regular columns on legal and regulatory affairs for Legal Times and the National Law Journal, leading national legal periodicals.
He received his A.B. from Duke University and his J.D. from Duke Law School, where he serves as a member of the Board of Visitors.
Policy Director, Next Century Cities
Christopher Mitchell is the Policy Director at Next Century Cities as well as the Director of the Community Broadband Networks Initiative with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance in Minneapolis. Mr. Mitchell is a leading national expert on community networks and speaks at conferences across the United States on telecommunications policy.
On a day-to-day basis, Mr. Mitchell runs MuniNetworks.org, the comprehensive online clearinghouse of information about community broadband. His research and reports are available online. In 2012, he published three in-depth case studies of citywide publicly owned gigabit networks, called “Broadband at the Speed of Light.” In 2011, Mr. Mitchell released the Community Broadband Map, a comprehensive map of community owned networks.
He was honored as one of the 2012 Top 25 in Public Sector Technology by Government Technology, which honors the top “Doers, Drivers, and Dreamers” in the nation each year. That same year, the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors named ILSR the Broadband Organization of the Year.
His Twitter identity is @communitynets
He earned a Master’s degree in Public Policy from the Hubert Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota and a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Macalester College.
Senior Policy Director, Mobile Future
Rachael Bender is Senior Policy Director for Mobile Future, where she focuses on issues involving wireless technology, broadband, and spectrum. Prior to joining Mobile Future in 2011, Ms. Bender was a law clerk in the Department of Regulatory Affairs at CTIA – The Wireless Association. Ms. Bender graduated from the University of Maryland with a B.A. in Government & Politics, and from the Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law with a J.D. and certificate from the Institute for Communications Law Studies. During law school, she served as president of the Communications Law Student Association and competed in the National Telecommunications Moot Court Competition, for which she also served as Vice Chancellor during her third year. She is a member of the Pennsylvania and New Jersey Bars.
What's the Download on Municipal Broadband? - Podcast
Charles M. Davidson, Randolph May, Christopher Mitchell, Rachael M. Bender
Telecommunications & Electronic Media Practice Group Podcast
The role of municipally-owned and operated broadband networks in the United States has been the...