DeAnne is a tech equity advocate and communications strategist from San Antonio, Texas. She served as Mayor Ron Nirenberg’s digital inclusion appointee to the City of San Antonio’s Innovation & Technology Committee, resulting in several policy and funding priorities to close the digital divide. As a social impact entrepreneur, she co-founded several cross-sector nonprofit initiatives, advocating for justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion for historically underrepresented communities.

DeAnne brings over a decade of experience in tech equity planning, strategy formation, and community organizing to her role with ILSR. Before becoming the community broadband outreach team lead, DeAnne served as the founding state director for OATS from AARP in Texas, leveraging her policy and advocacy relationships to initiate one of the most extensive digital inclusion programs for older populations in the state’s history. Her coalition-building multiplied funding and resources to reduce and eliminate historical, institutional, and structural barriers to internet use in South Texas. She is a proud alum of Rockwood Leadership Institutes’s fellowship for Media, Communications, and Information Policy.