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[Lauren Rotman <>]

Internet2 Richard Rose Award Honors Carol Willis for Exemplary Contributions to Advanced Networking in Support of K20 Community

MAGPI’s Jennifer Oxenford Also Honored

Arlington, VA – April 28, 2009 – Internet2 today announced that Carol Willis, manager of the Texas Education Telecommunications Network (TETN) has been honored with the inaugural Richard Rose Award.

 

The Richard Rose award was established to recognize extraordinary individual contributions that extend the reach of advanced networking into the K20 community. Carol is credited with initiating, planning and implementing the TETN “Plus” network project. Carol fostered a collaborative relationship with the Lonestar Education and Research Network (LEARN) to create a next-generation optical network specifically to support K20 education in Texas. As a result of this work, Education Service Centers (ESCs) and associated K12 schools now have access to a high-speed, high-capacity statewide telecommunications intranet, the Internet2 Network, and the commodity Internet, enabling the Texas K20 community to participate in the most advanced applications in support of teaching and learning. 

 

"Richard helped to shape the K20 Initiative through his dedication and understanding of how advanced networking could revolutionize learning. Carol’s commitment to advancing the progress of the K20 community through leading-edge technology embodies all the great values that Richard worked tirelessly to promote,” said Louis Fox, director of the Internet2 K20 Initiative. “Carol serves as a role model for our community, and we look forward to experiencing what her vision will bring to K20 in the future.”

 

In addition to putting the physical network foundation in place, under Carol’s leadership, and in collaboration with the Education Service Centers in Texas and the Texas Education Agency, TETN worked to develop robust content programs that have helped to transform the traditional classroom into a more meaningful three-dimensional experience for students across the state of Texas and the country. 

 

"Carol has been the consummate go-between for the K12 community and the higher education community in Texas. Those bridges are the foundation for many of the advances in educational content and pedagogies across all the Independent School Districts in Texas,” said Wayne Wedemeyer, Director of the University of Texas System Office of Telecommunication Services. 

 

Presented by the Internet2 K20 Initiative, in which Richard Rose played an early and influential leadership role, the award focuses on efforts to extend advanced networking and applications from research universities to the broadest education community, including primary and secondary schools, community colleges, libraries, museums, zoos, aquariums, performing arts and cultural centers. Mr. Rose was the executive director of the University of Maryland Academic Telecommunications System (UMATS) and USM Office IT, when he passed away in January, 2007.

"The Texas Education Service Centers recognize the need to provide their schools with a 21st century infrastructure. The TETN Plus network is laying the foundation that will provide Texas students with learning opportunities to become effective digital citizens. This project would not have been possible without the mentorship and support of Texas A&M University, The University of Texas and the Lonestar Education and Research Network, nor would it have been a reality without the vision of the Internet2 community, including Richard Rose," said Willis.

 

The award was presented at the Spring 2009 Internet2 Member Meeting held in Arlington, Virginia, on April 29, 2009. Also honored during the ceremony was Jennifer Oxenford, Strategic Planning Consultant for MAGPI, the advanced networking hub at the University of Pennsylvania that provides high-performance connectivity to the research and education community in the Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware region. Jennifer received this honorable mention for her work pioneering new applications and national programs that have shaped how advanced networks are utilized throughout the U.S. education community.

 

For more information, visit http://www.internet2.edu/rose/.

About Internet2

Internet2 is the foremost U.S. advanced networking consortium. Led by the research and education community since 1996, Internet2 promotes the missions of its members by providing both leading-edge network capabilities and unique partnership opportunities that together facilitate the development, deployment and use of revolutionary Internet technologies. Internet2 brings the U.S. research and academic community together with technology leaders from industry, government and the international community to undertake collaborative efforts that have a fundamental impact on tomorrow's Internet. For more information, visit http://www.internet2.edu. 

Media Contact:
Internet2
Lauren Rotman
(202) 331-5345