WASHINGTON —
NTIA announced that it is continuing to build out its senior leadership following the confirmation of Alan Davidson as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information. Andy Berke, former mayor of Chattanooga, Tenn., is joining NTIA as a special representative for broadband.
Andy Berke served as the mayor of Chattanooga, Tenn., from 2013 to 2021. Under his leadership, Chattanooga established several digital equity programs, including Tech Goes Home, which offers technology training, skills, and access to families. At the end of his term, Mayor Berke led a partnership to provide high speed broadband at no cost to every family with a child on free or reduced lunch, making Chattanooga the first community in the country with such a benefit. A native of Chattanooga, Berke served in the Tennessee Senate for five years prior to his mayoralty.
“Chattanooga has led our country in making sure that our residents have access to high-speed broadband and the skills to use it,” said Berke. “With the funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Biden Administration is determined to make sure that every American has that same opportunity.”
(NTIA is an agency in the Department of Commerce that is implementing a number of the broadband programs in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, also known as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.)