OPAD Staff Biographies

Eric R. Stark
Associate Administrator for the Office of Policy Analysis and Development
(202) 482-1880
estark@ntia.doc.gov

Eric R. Stark serves as Associate Administrator for the Office of Policy Analysis and Development in the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). In this capacity, he directs the department that conducts research and analysis and prepares policy recommendations for the Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information. Mr. Stark was appointed to the post on July 11, 2005.

NTIA serves as the principal adviser to the President on telecommunications and information policy. In this role, NTIA formulates, advocates, and participates in the implementation of policies, frequently working with other Executive Branch agencies to develop and present the Administration's position. Since its creation in 1978, NTIA has been at the cutting edge of critical technology issues.

The Office of Policy Analysis and Development (OPAD) is the domestic policy division of NTIA. OPAD supports NTIA's role as principal adviser to the Executive Branch and the Secretary of Commerce on telecommunications and information policies by conducting research and analysis and preparing policy recommendations. The office generates policies that promote innovation, competition, and economic growth for the benefit of American businesses and consumers, and is focused on fulfilling President Bush’s national goal of affordable broadband Internet access for all Americans by 2007.

Prior to his service in the Administration, Mr. Stark was Global Account Director for AT&T in San Francisco, California, responsible for leading a worldwide sales team for one of AT&T's largest accounts. From 1998 to 2002, he was Regional Sales Manager for AT&T in Los Angeles, California. Prior to that, Mr. Stark served in a variety of sales and operations roles for AT&T in both business and consumer markets. Mr. Stark received his B.A. in Economics and Business from Westmont College in Santa Barbara and an M.B.A. from the University of Southern California in 1996. He and his wife Sabrina were married in 1993 and have two children.

Joe Gattuso
Senior Policy Advisor
(202) 482-0977
jgattuso@ntia.doc.gov

In his over 16 years at NTIA, Joe has worked on a broad range of matters in various capacities, including Acting Director of the Office of Policy Analysis and Development and Acting Director of Congressional Affairs. Joe’s area of concentration is spectrum management theory and the regulation of commercial wireless services. He is currently detailed to NTIA’s Office of the Assistant Secretary where he is coordinating NTIA’s implementation of the President’s Initiative on Spectrum Policy for the 21st Century and helping to establish the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee. In 2004, Joe spent over five months in Baghdad, Iraq, on detail to the Coalition Provisional Authority as an advisor to Iraq’s Ministry of Communications and National Communications and Media Commission. While there he led a legal and regulatory team responsible for establishing an independent regulatory commission, acting as a provisional regulator, and advising on the development of a basic communications law and related issues. He also prepared and submitted documents to begin the process of redelegation of the “Dot-IQ” country code top level domain to Iraq through application to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. Joe received a BA from Stanford University and a JD from the UCLA School of Law, where he participated in the Communications Law Program. After law school, Joe practiced law in his home state of California for several years until moving to Washington.

Alfred Lee
Senior Advisor
(202) 482-1878
alee@ntia.doc.gov

Alfred Lee is currently Senior Advisor in the Office of Policy Analysis and Development (OPAD) at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), U.S. Department of Commerce, where he has also served as Acting Associate Administrator. Specializing in telecommunications policy research, Lee has managed and developed national policy initiatives to enhance competition and reduce regulation in the telecommunications marketplace. He has shaped, managed the development of, and articulated numerous agency positions on a wide variety of issues, involving telephony, cable television, and information services. His more recent work has focused on issues related to the emergence of markets for new technologies and services, including digital television services, the commercialization of the Internet, and new Internet technical standards. Lee has coauthored several books and numerous monographs and articles related to his telecommunications policy research interests. Lee earned his M.S. and PhD. from Cornell University and his B.S.E.E. from the University of Illinois. He has served as a consultant to the National Science Foundation, as an Associate Editor of the IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, and as a program organizer for the Telecommunication Policy Research Conference. He is an elected member of Sigma Xi, a scientific research honorary society and has received numerous commendations for his work at the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Maureen A. Lewis
Director of the Minority Telecommunications Development Program
(202) 482-1892
mlewis@ntia.doc.gov

Ms. Lewis joined NTIA as the Director of the Minority Telecommunications Development Program in January 2000. In that role, she is responsible for developing policy and analyzing proposed legislation and regulations to increase minority ownership of broadcast and telecommunications enterprises. She wrote a report titled Changes, Challenges, and Charting New Courses: Minority Commercial Broadcast Ownership in the United States. She also serves as a senior policy analyst and advises on such issues as media, broadband deployment, federal rights-of-way, Internet domain names, and small business development. Previously, Ms. Lewis served as general counsel of the Alliance for Public Technology, where she successfully petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to initiate a proceeding to evaluate the pace of broadband deployment in the United States. She also served as senior counsel for Howard University, where she represented the university’s radio, television, and publishing operations. Ms. Lewis began her career at the Federal Trade Commission as an antitrust attorney and advisor for Commissioner Mary Azcuenaga. She received her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, DC and her B.A., cum laude, in Economics from Spelman College in Atlanta, GA. She is a member of the bar of the District of Columbia and of the United States Supreme Court.

James McConnaughey
Senior Economist
(202) 482-3161
jmcconnaughey@ntia.doc.gov

James McConnaughey serves as Senior Economist, National Telecommunications & Information Administration's (NTIA) Office of Policy Analysis and Development, at the US Department of Commerce. Prior to NTIA, he was Research Manager at Bethesda Research Institute and Senior Economist at the Federal Communications Commission. Mr. McConnaughey has worked on a variety of issues related to regulatory reform, competition, and universal service. In recent years, he has focused particularly on universal service and issues related to Internet access and usage, including broadband. The senior economist has co-authored two books and a law journal article, contributed several book chapters, and made numerous presentations on U.S. telecommunications policy in the United States and countries such as Belgium, Botswana, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, and the UK. He recently led the team that developed the Commerce Department broadband study, A Nation Online. McConnaughey earned a B.S. (with high honors) and an M.A. in economics from the University of Maryland and the George Washington University, respectively, and an M.P.A. (with high honors) as Robert Seamans Fellow for Technology & Public Policy and Lucius Littauer Scholar at Harvard University.

Sallianne F. Schagrin
Telecommunications Policy Analyst
(202) 482-1885
sschagrin@ntia.doc.gov

Since January 2000, Ms. Schagrin has served as a telecommunications policy analyst for NTIA’s Office of Policy Analysis and Development. Ms. Schagrin analyzes and develops policy relating to electronic commerce including, privacy and security, consumer protection, child online protection, spam, identity theft, electronic signatures, domain names and new technologies. Most recently, she coordinated a conference for NTIA on wireless security threats to identify issues and solutions related to vulnerabilities that threaten consumer and industry security and privacy using wireless communications. Ms. Schagrin also manages NTIA’s kids.us educational campaign as mandated by Congress under the Dot Kids Implementation Act of 2002, which designates the kids.us space for child appropriate online content. Additionally, Ms. Schagrin has authored several reports for NTIA, including a report to Congress on the “Children’s Internet Protection Act,” studying the effectiveness of Internet safety policies and technology protection measures and the Commission for Child Online Protection Act (COPA) report to Congress analyzing methods to protect minors from inappropriate online content, including the impact on free speech and consumer privacy. Ms. Schagrin received her B.A. from Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington and her J.D. from The American University’s Washington College of Law.

Timothy C. Sloan
Analyst
(202) 482-1899
tsloan@ntia.doc.gov

Mr. Sloan is an analyst in the Domestic Policy Office of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. He has been with NTIA since January 1986, and has more than 20 years experience in all phases of telecommunications and cable television law and policy. Before coming to NTIA, Mr. Sloan was Associate General Counsel of the National Cable Television Association, a regulatory attorney with Bell Atlantic, and an associate at Wilkinson, Cragun, and Barker, a Washington communications law firm. Mr. Sloan graduated from Georgetown University in 1976 with a degree in government. He received a law degree in 1979 from Duke University Law School.