OPAD Staff Biographies

Daniel J. Weitzner
Associate Administrator for the Office of Policy Analysis and Development
(202) 482-1880 djweitzner@ntia.doc.gov

Daniel J. Weitzner serves as Associate Administrator for the Office of Policy Analysis and Development in the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). He directs the office that conducts research and analysis and prepares policy recommendations for the Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information.

NTIA serves as the principal adviser to the President on telecommunications and information policy. In this role, NTIA formulates, advocates, and participates in the implementation of policies, frequently working with other Executive Branch agencies to develop and present the Administration's position. Since its creation in 1978, NTIA has been at the cutting edge of critical technology issues.

The Office of Policy Analysis and Development (OPAD) is the domestic policy division of NTIA. OPAD supports NTIA's role as principal adviser to the Executive Branch and the Secretary of Commerce on telecommunications and information policies by conducting research and analysis and preparing policy recommendations. The office generates policies that promote innovation, competition, and economic growth for the benefit of American businesses and consumers.

Prior to joining NTIA, Weitzner was Director of the MIT CSAIL Decentralized Information Group, taught Internet public policy in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department, and was Policy Director of the World Wide Web Consortium's Technology and Society activities. At DIG he led research on the development of new technology and public policy models for addressing legal challenges raised by the Web, including privacy, intellectual property, identity management and new regulatory models for the Web. At W3C he was responsible for Web standards needed to address public policy requirements, including the Platform for Privacy Preference (P3P) and XML Security technologies.

Weitzner was co-founder and Deputy Director of the Center for Democracy and Technology, and Deputy Policy Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Weitzner has law degree from Buffalo Law School, and a B.A. in Philosophy from Swarthmore College. His writings have appeared in Science magazine, the Yale Law Review, Communications of the ACM, Computerworld, Wired Magazine and Social Research.

Dennis Amari
Senior Policy Advisor
(202) 482-4358
damari@ntia.doc.gov

Dennis joined OPAD in January 2009, after serving as an advisor in the Office of the Assistant Secretary beginning in December 2007. He came to NTIA with over 20 years of experience on telecommunications and information-related policy issues in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. His previous public sector experience includes six year as a Senior Analyst with the U.S. Government Accountability Office where he led and participated in studies reviewing policies and programs administered by the FCC, NTIA, and other agencies, at the request of members and committees of the U.S. Congress. In the private sector, he served for eight years with Bell Communications Research, Inc. (“Bellcore,” now Telcordia Technologies, Inc.), providing policy consulting services to former owners, the Regional Bell Operating Companies, and other telecommunications providers, and representing Bellcore before policy officials; and two years as Policy Counsel with VeriSign, Inc., where he supported the company’s communications business unit and its interests on Internet governance issues. Earlier, he worked at two nonprofits providing advocacy on policy issues of concern to the performing arts and the nation’s museum community. Dennis received a JD from American University’s Washington College of Law, a Master’s degree in Public Policy from George Washington University, and his Bachelor’s degree from the College of Wooster.


Joe Gattuso
Senior Policy Advisor
(202) 482-0977
jgattuso@ntia.doc.gov

In his over 16 years at NTIA, Joe has worked on a broad range of matters in various capacities, including Acting Director of the Office of Policy Analysis and Development and Acting Director of Congressional Affairs. Joe’s area of concentration is spectrum management theory and the regulation of commercial wireless services. He is currently detailed to NTIA’s Office of the Assistant Secretary where he is coordinating NTIA’s implementation of the President’s Initiative on Spectrum Policy for the 21st Century and helping to establish the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee. In 2004, Joe spent over five months in Baghdad, Iraq, on detail to the Coalition Provisional Authority as an advisor to Iraq’s Ministry of Communications and National Communications and Media Commission. While there he led a legal and regulatory team responsible for establishing an independent regulatory commission, acting as a provisional regulator, and advising on the development of a basic communications law and related issues. He also prepared and submitted documents to begin the process of redelegation of the “Dot-IQ” country code top level domain to Iraq through application to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. Joe received a BA from Stanford University and a JD from the UCLA School of Law, where he participated in the Communications Law Program. After law school, Joe practiced law in his home state of California for several years until moving to Washington.

Alfred Lee
Senior Advisor
(202) 482-1878
alee@ntia.doc.gov

Alfred Lee is currently Senior Advisor in the Office of Policy Analysis and Development (OPAD) at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), U.S. Department of Commerce, where he has also served as Acting Associate Administrator. Specializing in telecommunications policy research, Lee has managed and developed national policy initiatives to enhance competition and reduce regulation in the telecommunications marketplace. He has shaped, managed the development of, and articulated numerous agency positions on a wide variety of issues, involving telephony, cable television, and information services. His more recent work has focused on issues related to the emergence of markets for new technologies and services, including digital television services, the commercialization of the Internet, and new Internet technical standards. Lee has coauthored several books and numerous monographs and articles related to his telecommunications policy research interests. Lee earned his M.S. and PhD. from Cornell University and his B.S.E.E. from the University of Illinois. He has served as a consultant to the National Science Foundation, as an Associate Editor of the IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, and as a program organizer for the Telecommunication Policy Research Conference. He is an elected member of Sigma Xi, a scientific research honorary society and has received numerous commendations for his work at the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Maureen A. Lewis
Director of the Minority Telecommunications Development Program
(202) 482-1892
mlewis@ntia.doc.gov

Ms. Lewis joined NTIA as the Director of the Minority Telecommunications Development Program in January 2000. In that role, she is responsible for developing policy and analyzing proposed legislation and regulations to increase minority ownership of broadcast and telecommunications enterprises. She wrote a report titled Changes, Challenges, and Charting New Courses: Minority Commercial Broadcast Ownership in the United States. She also serves as a senior policy analyst and advises on such issues as media, broadband deployment, federal rights-of-way, Internet domain names, and small business development. Previously, Ms. Lewis served as general counsel of the Alliance for Public Technology, where she successfully petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to initiate a proceeding to evaluate the pace of broadband deployment in the United States. She also served as senior counsel for Howard University, where she represented the university’s radio, television, and publishing operations. Ms. Lewis began her career at the Federal Trade Commission as an antitrust attorney and advisor for Commissioner Mary Azcuenaga. She received her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, DC and her B.A., cum laude, in Economics from Spelman College in Atlanta, GA. She is a member of the bar of the District of Columbia and of the United States Supreme Court.

James McConnaughey
Senior Economist
(202) 482-3161
jmcconnaughey@ntia.doc.gov

James McConnaughey serves as Senior Economist, National Telecommunications & Information Administration's (NTIA) Office of Policy Analysis and Development, at the US Department of Commerce. Prior to NTIA, he was Research Manager at Bethesda Research Institute and Senior Economist at the Federal Communications Commission. Mr. McConnaughey has worked on a variety of issues related to regulatory reform, competition, and universal service. In recent years, he has focused particularly on universal service and issues related to Internet access and usage, including broadband. The senior economist has co-authored two books and a law journal article, contributed several book chapters, and made numerous presentations on U.S. telecommunications policy in the United States and countries such as Belgium, Botswana, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, and the UK. He recently led the team that developed the Commerce Department broadband study, A Nation Online. McConnaughey earned a B.S. (with high honors) and an M.A. in economics from the University of Maryland and the George Washington University, respectively, and an M.P.A. (with high honors) as Robert Seamans Fellow for Technology & Public Policy and Lucius Littauer Scholar at Harvard University.

Timothy C. Sloan
Analyst
(202) 482-1899
tsloan@ntia.doc.gov

Mr. Sloan is an analyst in the Domestic Policy Office of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. He has been with NTIA since January 1986, and has more than 20 years experience in all phases of telecommunications and cable television law and policy. Before coming to NTIA, Mr. Sloan was Associate General Counsel of the National Cable Television Association, a regulatory attorney with Bell Atlantic, and an associate at Wilkinson, Cragun, and Barker, a Washington communications law firm. Mr. Sloan graduated from Georgetown University in 1976 with a degree in government. He received a law degree in 1979 from Duke University Law School.