WASHINGTON-Gregory L. Rohde, Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information and head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, today named a series of new staff appointments to help support the agency's programs and initiatives.

The new appointments include Maureen A. Lewis, Senior Attorney with expertise in telecommunications issues, will be Director of the Minority Telecommunications Development Program. The program was established in 1978 to develop initiatives and policies that increase minority ownership of broadcast and telecommunications businesses. Lewis has served as General Counsel for the Alliance for Public Technology in Washington D.C. and Senior Associate General Counsel at Howard University, also in Washington, D.C. She began her legal career at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) where she worked as an antitrust attorney, an advisor for the Consumer and Competition Advocacy Program, and as Attorney Advisor to former FTC Commissioner Mary Azcuenaga.

Cinnamon Rogers, a Capitol Hill Attorney with experience in Telecommunications matters, has been named Director of Congressional Affairs at NTIA. Rogers was the former Legislative Director and Legal Counsel for Representative Thomas J. Manton, the ranking Democrat on the House Commerce Subcommittee on Finance and Hazardous Materials and Senior Member on the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade and Consumer Protection. She is currently an attorney with the Washington law firm of Sher & Blackwell.

Rohde named Arthur R. Brodsky, Senior Editor and Congressional Correspondent for Communications Daily in Washington, as Director of Communications. As the senior telecommunications reporter in Washington, Brodsky covered telecommunication regulation at the Federal and state levels for the past 16 years.

Rohde also named Ranjit de Silva, currently Acting Director of Public Affairs at NTIA, as Director of Public Affairs. de Silva served as a Senior Public Affairs Specialist in the Office of the Secretary of Commerce for the past 12 years. Prior to joining the government, de Silva was a senior correspondent in Washington for Reuters and United Press International.