California Emerging Technology Fund and Sunne Wright McPeak Win CENIC’s 2013 Innovations in Networking Award for Efforts to Close Digital Divide in CA

LA MIRADA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC) is pleased to announce that the California Emerging Technology Fund (CETF) and CETF President and Chief Executive Officer Sunne Wright McPeak are being honored as winners of the 2013 Innovations in Networking Awards for Gigabit/Broadband Applications. This award recognizes the successful efforts of CETF to expand the reach of broadband in California.

CETF is a statewide non-profit organization whose mission is to close the Digital Divide by accelerating the deployment and adoption of broadband to unserved and underserved communities and populations, and to ensure that California is a global leader in the availability and use of broadband technology. CETF accomplishes this mission by making investments in broadband programs and projects to improve access, affordability, applications, accessibility and assistance—the “5As” of the Digital Divide.

Sunne Wright McPeak was named President and CEO of CETF in December, 2006, after serving for three years as Secretary of the California Business, Transportation and Housing Agency. Her focused leadership and drive for results over the past six years has positioned California as a national leader in closing the Digital Divide, with groundbreaking projects and programs that include Get Connected! (to drive adoption), California Telehealth Network, Digital Literacy programs, Smart Housing Policy, School2Home (to improve education), and serving as manager of two U.S. Department of Commerce grants focused on connecting Californians to broadband and digital careers.

Innovations in Networking Awards are given annually by CENIC to highlight exemplary innovations that leverage ultra high-bandwidth networking, particularly those innovations that have the potential to revolutionize the way Californians learn and conduct research or initiatives that lead to the deployment of broadband in underserved areas.

About CENIC • www.cenic.org

California’s education and research communities leverage their networking resources under CENIC, the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California, in order to obtain cost-effective, high-bandwidth networking to support their missions and answer the needs of their faculty, staff, and students. CENIC designs, implements, and operates CalREN, the California Research and Education Network, a high-bandwidth, high-capacity Internet network specially designed to meet the unique requirements of these communities, and to which the vast majority of the state’s K-20 educational institutions are connected. In order to facilitate collaboration in education and research, CENIC also provides connectivity to non-California institutions and industry research organizations with which CENIC’s Associate researchers and educators are engaged.