ANN ARBOR – Ana Preston, Internet2’s current Director for Regional and State Network Relations, and interim Director for International Relations, has been named Internet2?s new
Executive Director for Member Relations and Communications . Her new appointment will begin December 1.
In this role, Preston will assume management responsibility for the
organization?s member engagement and communications activities. Ana
will work closely with members, partners, and community
representatives to evaluate and promote the community?s advanced
cyberinfrastructure services and initiatives that support research and
educational missions. She will also work with the Internet2 executive
team and its governance to coordinate member outreach and appropriate
communications to key stakeholder groups and the public.
“We are delighted that Ana will become a key member of the Internet2
management team. Ana’s dedication over the past 8 years in working
with our members to ensure they are continually engaged and informed
has resulted in many new and exciting collaborations in the Internet2
community,” said Doug Van Houweling, Internet2 president and CEO. “In
this new role, I know Ana will have great success in expanding
Internet2’s community engagement to ensure the broad membership is
actively supported. Ana will work with the membership to meet today’s
needs and position us to anticipate the rapidly evolving nature of the
research and education environment.”
Preston joined Internet2 in 2001 as Program Manager for International
Relations. In her five years in that role, she helped to bring more
than 15 international partners to Internet2, while leading efforts to
connect and collaborate with emerging national research and education
networks. She then took on the role of Senior Program Manager for
FiberCo, a subsidiary of Internet2 that serves as a dark fiber holding
company, where she was responsible for brokering dark fiber
acquisitions and managing consulting and professional network services
to regional optical networking initiatives in the United States and
Canada.
Currently, she serves as Director, State and Regional Network
Relations. In this position, she leads efforts to engage, collaborate
and partner with the network member organizations that both provide
connectivity to Internet2’s network infrastructure and play an
important role in Internet2 activities and governance. In this
capacity, she has successfully implemented a proactive communication
and engagement plan with this segment of the Internet2 membership.
Prior to joining Internet2, Ana worked for the CIO’s office at the
University of Tennessee-Knoxville where she was responsible for
collaborating with faculty and researchers on test deployments of next-
generation technologies with a focus on assessing the utility and
application development issues associated with installing new campus
network technology. Ana also supported the development and provided
initial planning for the Tennessee optical networking infrastructure.
“I am delighted to be taking on this greatly expanded role for
Internet2 ? an organization and a community that I believe is helping
to support truly breakthrough innovation for research and education
and for our broader society,” said Preston. “I am excited to join the
executive team of Internet2 and look forward to working closely with
our membership and our partners worldwide to ensure we continue to
meet the needs of the community as well as provide a pathway for their
future discoveries.”
a>>
