PolicyBlog

Verizon’s Summer internship program gets an added boost of visibility, courtesy of the US Department  of Labor.  I posted this on our corporate responsibility blog last night detailing this new push.  While it’s bitter cold outside, Verizon is already looking to summer, specifically summer jobs. Today I participated in the “Summer Jobs +” event at the White House to represent Verizon’s internship program for the summer of 2012. This event was hosted by Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis and... Read More

The following is cross posted at Verizon’s Responsibility Blog. You probably do not think of Verizon as an energy company, but when you stop and think about how our broadband and wireless networks enable energy efficiency you will understand how we are at the heart of the clean economy.  Last week, Verizon was recognized for the work we’ve done on this score.  The recognition: the “Groundbreaker Award” from the Clean Economy Network for fostering the development and adoption of new technologies... Read More

It was moving to see President Obama sign this important legislation into law.  This is the result of the hard work and dedication of disability advocates represented by the Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology, which understands the value that 21st century technologies play in people’s lives.   This law will ensure that millions of Americans with disabilities have greater access to new broadband services and technologies.  We appreciate the president’s leadership and the... Read More

(This post can also be found on our corporate responsibility blog)  My colleagues, Jackie Ruff, Leslie Martinkovics and I,  with an able assist from Lindsay McQuaid of the Verizon Foundation, have just returned from Uganda where Verizon co-sponsored with the Internet Society (ISOC), the Uganda Communications Commission and the Uganda Martyrs University, a highly successful Symposium on ICT for Higher Education in East Africa .  (My opening remarks can be found here.)  Two hundred of the most... Read More

This week I attended a forum to discuss the national broadband plan, and shared why we should all be hopeful about the fruit the current FCCs effort can bear.   There is work to be done, yes, but this national dialogue and the concrete steps the FCC is mulling can have great impact.  The best recommendation the FCC can make in its National Broadband Plan is universal adoption of broadband use by the federal, state, and local governments.  The retail market will follow. The FCC’s Executive... Read More

For kids, summer is usually a time for fun and friends, so it’s sometimes a challenge to keep fresh all that was learned throughout the school year.  And that’s not just anecdotal.  According to the National Center for Summer Learning, all young people experience learning loss when they do not engage in educational activities during the summer. Most students lose about two months of grade-level equivalency in mathematical computation skills, and low-income students lose more than two months in... Read More

As I did last year, I’ll be marking this Earth Day at Fortune Magazine’s Brainstorm: Green event in Laguna Niguel, California.  Later today, I’ll be discussing some of Verizon’s power management initiatives on a panel hosted by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF).  Fortune’s Julie Schlosser will serve as the moderator. I’ll be one of three panelists along with Fedele Bauccio, CEO of Bon Appétit Management Co., and Kevin Hagen, director of corporate social responsibility for REI. EDF will also... Read More

When we think of Internet safety cyber-bullying and Dateline’s “To Catch a Predator” news series quickly spring to mind. Yet nearly a third of Internet-related fraud complaints dealt with those 50 and older, according to a study by the Federal Trade Commission.  Verizon awarded a $25,000 grant to the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee to develop Internet safety workshops that will be held throughout the region to educate people in this age group about potential online risks like... Read More

At Verizon, we’re conserving energy and saving money, one PC -- one monitor -- at a time. OK, we’re doing a lot more than that but a recent case study by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency illustrates how one of the company’s simplest initiatives achieved significant energy savings-- equivalent to that needed to light nearly 88,000 homes annually. By activating sleep features across 185,000 PCs and monitors we should be able to prevent more than 252,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions... Read More