Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke and Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger announced on Tuesday the Spring Review Board for the Mozilla Gigabit Communities Fund.
The Mozilla Gigabit Community Fund is a program designed to foster and support the development of applications and associated curricula running on next-generation networks that improve people’s everyday lives through creating new education and workforce development opportunities.
A collaboration of the National Science Foundation and Mozilla, $300,000 will be made available to fund projects in Chattanooga and Kansas City. There will be two rounds of funding, one in the spring and another in the summer. Grants will range from $5,000-$30,000.
Projects must be connected with a brick-and-mortar organization in Chattanooga and/or Kansas City, must be able to be piloted in the 12-week project pilot period, and must take advantage of our community's Gig network.
“As with so many initiatives, collaboration is the key to success,” said City Mayor Andy Berke. “Effective projects will require the input and expertise of educators and technology professionals from across the community.”
A select group of local reviewers, working alongside representatives from NSF and Mozilla, will decide which projects are selected.
“These review board members represent a broad cross-section of our community, and we're confident that they will thoughtfully select an outstand group of innovative projects that will help demonstrate how our next-generation gig network can have immediate impact on education and workforce development,” said County Mayor Jim Coppinger.
Spring Review Board members include:
- George Bairaktaris, partner, Tubatomic Studios
- Bijan Dhanani, founder, The Unfoundation
- Lisa Flint, executive director, The Footprint Foundation
- Linda Frost, dean of UTC Honor’s College
- Alfonso Gomez-Arzola, designer, /markup
- Ron Harr, CEO, Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce
- Alison Lebovitz, president, One Clip at a Time
- Kelly McCarthy, co-owner, Easy Designs
- Kristina Montague, partner, The Jump Fund
- Nancy Patterson, associate VP for Leadership and Fund Development, Chattanooga State
- Lori Quillen, program officer, The Benwood Foundation
- Allison Reedy, events director, The Company Lab
- Stacy Richardson, senior advisor & chief policy officer to Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke
- Karen Rudolph, Program Office, The Lyndhurst Foundation
- Daniel Ryan, technologist, WayPaver/Open Chattanooga
- Dan Saieed, director of Development, Hamilton County Government
- Rick Smith, superintendent, Hamilton County Department of Education
- Craig Tanis, UTC College of Engineering and Computer Science
- Edna Varner, new teacher coach, Public Education Foundation
Funding decisions will be announced in mid-April. The application window for the Summer Round of the Mozilla Gigabit Community Fund will open May 19.
More information can be found at Mozilla.org/gigabit.