WEBCAST 6/4 @ 2PM ET
Future Schools—The Power of Connection
Sponsored by

Join us for a live, online event Tuesday, June 4, 2024 as eSchool News explores the current state and future possibilities for technology-driven education. Learn about solutions that can elevate digital infrastructures while maximizing E-Rate funding to foster an inclusive, secure and efficient learning environment. Examine the critical role of increased bandwidth in empowering schools to harness the potential of new technologies.
Takeaways will include:
- Cybersecurity Assurance: Compare comprehensive cybersecurity solutions, which safeguard school districts against digital threats and protect sensitive data.
- DEI Empowerment: Ensure equitable Internet access for all students, regardless of background or location.
- Future Technologies: Leverage advanced bandwidth solutions to unlock the full educational benefits of AR, VR, and AI, enabling enhanced student engagement, deeper understanding, improved academic outcomes and fewer administrative tasks for educators.

Kim Mirabella
Vice President, Business Development, Verizon
Bio
Kim Mirabella serves as the Vice President, Business Development and Strategic Sales for Verizon Public Sector Federal and SLED and oversees the development, design and capture of strategic opportunities as well as a new team focusing on Fixed Wireless Access.
Kim’s tenure at Verizon spans 26 years and includes a variety of roles within Enterprise and Government sales, Fios consumer sales, Verizon Lean Six Sigma and marketing. In her previous role, Kim served as the Director of Southeast Government Sales within the Public Sector team, focused on state and local government, public safety, K-12 and higher education. She started her career serving wireline customers, selling IP networking, voice/data networks, security, managed services, advanced comms and more.
In 2021 Kim was honored with the Verizon Credo Award for her work in delivering excellence for our customers, employees, shareholders and society. She worked with various law enforcement partners ahead of Super Bowl 55 in Tampa, FL to make sure all aspects of Verizon were ready for the big game. Kim has been instrumental in enabling hybrid learning for thousands of students through Verizon's Distance Learning program and delivery of affordable wireless solutions.
Kim is a Tampa, FL native and graduate of the University of Tampa with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business and a minor in Marketing. Kim is also active in volunteerism and leads volunteer initiatives at Verizon. She founded the “Ladies Boardroom” in 2020 which serves to mentor and develop women seeking to improve business acumen and overall career development. As a Hispanic woman, Kim celebrates diversity. As part of Kim’s responsibilities, her term leads the small diverse business partners focusing on partnerships with small, diverse, women, minority and disabled owned businesses.
Kim remains active in her local community serving on the Board of Directors for the Tampa Chamber of Commerce.

Scott Andersen
Distinguished Architect, Verizon
Bio
Scott Andersen is a long-time distinguished architect with more than 30 years of experience. He has designed solutions that span the world in a number of different industries including Financial Services, US Government, State Government, Aviation, Oil and Gas and many others.
He has helped customers modernize their application portfolios. He has helped customers design new structures around how they build and use their networking solutions. Andersen developed a toolset for mission focused application evaluation called the Enterprise Resource Triangle. Through this system customers can evaluate what and how they are building applications to meet their mission goals.
Finally, he has built and been a part of the management of two distinct Architecture Certifications over the years. Beyond certifications Andersen has published a number of articles and is now focusing on Artificial Intelligence and Hybrid Cloud.
When he isn’t focused on designing solutions, he is an avid writer, drone flyer and spends weekend time digging trenches. Well, perhaps the golf course doesn’t appreciate the trenches but he does enjoy a good round of golf!

Wes Withrow
Senior Client Partner, Verizon
Bio
Wes Withrow is a senior emerging services strategy leader, technical direction agent to governments, Fortune 500 account strategist, team director, and hands-on technology expert recognized for eliciting top performance in technical teams. Wes is a motivational and collaborative professional who creates peak staff engagement via an immersive digital culture experience with cross-functional teams who collaborate with clients on the “art of the possible” to maximize and accelerate digital transformation. A believer in positive internal change to foster improvements in performance, Wes’s servant-leadership style, visionary capability, and work ethic have enabled him to exceed corporate goals, launch innovative programs, control costs and risks, and retain and engage talented employees and productive teams during periods of substantial corporate change.
Recognized by a robust network of C-suite, IT, sales, government, and technology executives for a unique combination of technical and business intelligence, Wes has been aggressively recruited within the National Security, Big Data & Cybersecurity, High Performance Computing, and Zero Trust Architecture industries to oversee rapid prototype development, enterprise architecture issues, direct team development, negotiate contract issues, and optimize growth strategies to launch the next generation of offerings into a dynamic and rapidly changing market.
Combined with a Johns Hopkins M.S. in Information Systems and a degree in Computer Science, Wes has earned the industry’s top certifications: CISSP, CCSP, HCISSP, IBM Applied Artificial Intelligence Specialization, Zscaler ZCCA-IA, ZCSP, Netskope Security Cloud Introductory, Certified SAFe 5 Agilist, AWS CCP, HDI-SCM/SCTL/SCA, CompTIA Security+/Network+, ITIL v2/v3, Six Sigma Green & Yellow Belts, Human Subjects Research, and more. He is a four-time recipient of The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory Special Achievement Award, Davis and Elkins College Outstanding Young Alumnus Award, U.S. Army PEO EIS Certificate of Appreciation for Medical Communications for Combat Casualty Care, Appalachian College Association Distinguished Scholar, and a WVIAC Intercollegiate Athlete Scholar.
In his current position, Wes was recruited by Verizon, one of the world’s leading providers of communications, technology, information, and entertainment products and services to consumers, businesses and government entities. He serves on Verizon’s U.S. Public Sector Solutions Executive Team with accountability for leading cross-functional teams that digitally transform government services.
Wes previously served as a Delivery Manager for DXC Technology’s North American leadership team, with accountability for managing a team of 70+ Big Data and Cybersecurity engineers. Prior to that, Wes served as Senior Advisor- Emerging Services for Optiv to assist in designing next-generation managed security service offerings. Prior to that, Wes served as the Chief Technology Officer and Senior Solution Architect with Atos, a leader in digital services with annual revenue of $11+ billion. Additional positions have included Chief Information Officer with Bellwether Technology Corporation, Systems Engineer in the National Security Technology Department and Information Systems Manager in the Information Technology Services Department with The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. He initially launched his technical career as a Systems Engineer with Under Armour Performance Apparel.
As a mentor, trainer, and manager of talent, Wes develops and oversees Sales Capture Teams, Business Development Managers, Sales Executives, Product Managers, Enterprise Architects, Systems Engineers, Business Analysts, Project Managers, Scrum Masters, and DevOps Experts, focusing on process optimization, digital transformation and leadership transition. His area of expertise includes National Security, Homeland Protection, Asymmetric Warfare, C5ISR, Robotics, Biomedical Research, Enterprise Architecture, Big Data & Cybersecurity, Machine Learning, Managed Services and Global Business Development. Throughout his career, Wes has played a critical role in high profile, high dollar projects for the nation’s largest and most prestigious government and corporate clients, including the Commonwealth of Virginia, State of Georgia, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Department of Defense, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity, U.S. Navy, U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, MITRE, Rand Corporation, Allscripts, CNA Insurance, Ashland Chemical, Valvoline Inc., Scotts Lawn Care, Walt Disney Co., McKesson, Cleveland Clinic , Chevron, Raytheon Technologies, AT&T, and T-Mobile.
Wes lives in New Orleans’ historic Garden District with his wife, Emily, and their two cats.

Moderator – Kevin Hogan
eSchool News, Content Director
Bio
Kevin is an acclaimed writer, editor, and commentator covering the intersection of society and technology, especially education technology.