People


Abdul Alkalimat began to help guide UC2B as it became a below ground-above ground double grant proposal to the Department of Commerce in 2009. “Above ground” evolved into the Community Benefit Fund thanks to his and others’ community organizing. He is now a professor emeritus working on his bucket list, with his last manuscript being The History of Black Studies and the current one The Future of Black Studies, both from Northwestern University Press.


Jason Berg
, the incoming chair of UC2B’s Community Benefit Awards Committee, is president of Pixo, an Urbana web design/software development consultancy. As his bio there puts it, “When not advocating for clients and the Pixo team, Jason is either in the kitchen cooking with his amazing wife, mixing up obscure cocktails, helping lead a smallish church, catering for friends (occasionally), or trying to keep up with his three incredible college age daughters.”


Chieh-Li “Julian” Chin
, who provided help with hosting the Day of Discovery, is a Research Manager at the School of Information Sciences (iSchool) at the University of Illinois. She is also a Data Analyst at the Social Research and Technology Innovation Lab at Technology Services @ UIUC. Julian has served as the Tech Leader for the Urbana-Champaign Smart Gigabit Community project, which is a subaward from the National Science Foundation through US Ignite. She has a B.S. in Business Administration, an M.S. in Library and Information Science, and a Master’s in Computer Science. Her research is in the area of using information technology in complicated settings to support communication. She is interested in conducting human factors study to improve communication in healthcare, investigating relationships between intent and adoption for broadband and smart technologies, building sustainable smart community ecosystem to enhance digital literacy, digital inclusion, and digital equity in community, developing user-friendly application for social network data analysis, and creating educational resources for researchers to comply with data ethics and regulations in research practices.


Alice Delage
is Program Management & Community Liaison at the Midwest Big Data Hub, where she helps coordinate and manage activities and events to build the regional community, in particular under the Hub’s Smart, Connected and Resilient Communities priority area. The rest of her time is spent as a Project Manager at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where the MBDH is based.


Paul Hixson
is on the UC2B Board of Directors and served as the Chair of the UC2B Community Benefit Awards Program in 2018. Hixson is officially retired from the University of Illinois having served 41 years in the College of ACES and then 3 years as campus CIO – although he is currently working on a 3-year research project with the USAID-funded Soybean Innovation Lab to improve internet connectivity for agricultural research institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa.


Urbana is a forward-thinking City that does all that it can with the limited funding available. As the IT Director, Sanford Hess is responsible both for the strategic use of technology and also for the day-to-day operations that support critical operations.


The Age-Friendly Program Coordinator is a collaborative position between the Urbana Park District and Clark-Lindsey designed to empower older adults through the use of technology, community programming, and social support. Jacob Johnston’s professional interests include adult education, technology advocacy, fun and social programming, and smart home solutions.


David Keyes
works at the intersection of information and communications technologies, civic engagement, equity, and community capacity building. He directed the City of Seattle’s community technology programs for 19 years and was the first community technology planner in the country. He is currently the City’s Digital Equity Program Manager. In 2016, David received the inaugural Charles Benton Digital Equity Champion Award from the National Digital Inclusion Alliance and the Benton Foundation. At the City of Seattle, he started their Technology Matching Fund grant program, the Technology Access & Adoption community indicators, public Wi-Fi projects, and Digital Equity Initiative strategy. David has served on state broadband planning task forces, and a national IMLS and NDIA working groups to develop the national digital inclusion framework and definitions. He has presented at a wide range of conferences and served on numerous broadband and digital inclusion advisory boards. Prior to the City of Seattle, David worked in community media, educational tv, and online course development. David taught video art in Tasmania and still juggles occasionally. He is originally from Milwaukee, WI, and is a graduate of Antioch College and the University of Washington’s Evans School of Public Affairs.


Mackenzie Kirkham
is a sophomore studying computer science at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign and is a research student at the Social Research & Technology Innovation Lab. She’s passionate about civic technology, data science, product design, and helping the community. She is working on finding disparities in flooding and sewage related issues based on pockets of segregation in Urbana-Chapaign. Her teams goal is to develop sustainable solutions that will not only detect flooding but also increase equity.


Born in Natchitoches, Louisiana, Janice Mitchell earned a B.S. in social work from Southern University and an M.A. in social work from the University of Chicago. She served in the U.S. Army Reserves as Commander of the Urbana-based 378th Chemical Company. She has long been very involved as a community organizer, including as Urbana School District Parent and Community Outreach Liaison, with special interests in improving the academic social-emotional and behavioral performance of African American children. In 2010 Janice’s prayers and vision of establishing a neighborhood center came into fruition when Urbana Neighborhood Connections Center, Inc. opened its doors to provide year-round services and supports to children and families. In partnership with the Housing Authority of Champaign County, along with additional support from the City of Urbana, Urbana School District, the United Way of Champaign County; and countless others, an unused portion of a warehouse is now a viable human service facility at 1401 East Main Street in Urbana. “For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required.” (St. Luke 12:48b)


Khayriyah Mitchel
l is a junior at Champaign Centennial High School. In the summer of 2018, she co-facilitated an eight-week coding camp at Urbana’s Neighborhood Connection Center.
Marlon Mitchell is a 5th year PhD student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with undergrad degrees in Computer Science and Engineering. He founded FirstFollowers which is a non­profit organization that provides services for individual who have been formerly incarcerated or involved with the criminal justice system. In the summer of 2018 he co-facilitated series of a Lego Robotic workshops at DREEAM Academy’s summer camp.


Donna Pittman
has been the Director of the Champaign Public Library since 2016. She has spent most of her 35-year career in librarianship at Champaign Public Library where she also served as Head of Outreach Services, Development Director and Interim Director.


Ajaita Saini
is a sophomore studying computer science and statistics and a research student at the Social Research & Technology Innovation Lab and at the Data Driven Design group. Her project focuses on finding disparities in flooding and sewage related issues caused by the demographics of Champaign-Urbana neighborhoods, and she hopes to collaborate with community members, public officials, and policy makers to create infrastructure solutions that build empathy and equity in our town. She is also the 2019-2020 Vice President of Outreach for Design for America at Illinois and has recently worked on projects that tackle food insecurity on college campuses and assist senior citizens with chronic conditions using the principles of augmented reality to make healthcare more accessible. She values technology that recognizes the importance of the principles of design thinking and strives to create responsibly designed innovations for social issues on a large scale.


Amanda E. Standerfer
is the Director of Development & Promotion for The Urbana Free Library. She’s spent about half of her career working in philanthropy (as Program Officer for The Lumpkin Family Foundation based in Mattoon, IL and as Program Director with the Southeastern Illinois Community Foundation, serving Effingham and Mattoon, IL) and the other half in libraries, as Head of the Adult Division at the Decatur Public Library and as Director of the Helen Matthes Library in Effingham. Amanda has twice been elected to the Board of the Illinois Library Association, most recently completing a three-year term in 2016. Amanda holds a B.A. and an M.A. in history from Eastern Illinois University and an M.S. in library and information science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.


Mike Smeltzer
is the retired Director of Networking at the University of Illinois and the current chair of the UC2B NFP Board of Directors. He was the principal investigator (and instigator) for the federal and state grants that built the UC2B fiber-optic network.


Mark Toalson
has been the IT Director at the City of Champaign since 2012. Besides overseeing the City’s computer network and telecom systems, Mark has been investigating smart city technologies that may benefit the City.


Kandace Turner works in the Office of the Vice President for Economic Development and Innovation for the University of Illinois System. In her role she assists with the overall operation of the office and also supports the creation of the Illinois Innovation Network (IIN). She is currently pursuing a master’s degree in information management from the iSchool at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.


Kate Williams
is an associate professor at the University of Illinois iSchool who cofounded the Community Informatics Research Lab with Abdul Alkalimat. She has been studying and working with local community groups on the digital divide for 25 years, currently through a 22-partner project to study digital literacy and provide tech help among a variety of populations in nine countries.