Each year GovTech selects 25 leaders for its prestigious Doers, Dreamers and Drivers Award, and we’re thrilled to announce that our very own Amy Huffman is among them. Awardees include CIOs, privacy officers, security chiefs, accessibility advocates, and educators working at all levels of the public sector in jurisdictions across the country. They are chosen for their outstanding work both on the front lines and behind the scenes to ensure the government serves all of its residents.
GovTech said this of Amy Huffman in announcing her selection:
The federal government is making a historic investment in broadband and digital equity, having allocated $65 billion for the former and $2.75 billion for the latter. The money is trickling down now, and states are tasked with ultimately directing it where it helps most. That means each state has work to do. A lot of work. So much work, in fact, they could use help.
Luckily, they have Amy Huffman. Huffman is the policy director of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA), a nonprofit that supports digital equity. In that capacity, Huffman was thinking about how to help states since before the ink on the new funding was dry, advising them, for example, to hire digital equity managers. And when she gives advice, she knows what states need to hear, having herself spent more than six years in North Carolina’s Broadband Infrastructure Office. In 2019, in fact, Huffman became the first full-time digital equity staffer within any state.
Huffman helped create NDIA’s free State Digital Equity Plan Toolkit and organized a cohort for states to support each other through the funding allocation. She also helped plan and implement NDIA’s State Digital Equity Planning Workshops, in-person events held throughout the country.
CONGRATULATIONS AMY – you are such an important part of our work to bring digital equity to communities across the country. We are so fortunate to have on the NDIA team and so happy to see your hard work and dedication being recognized.