By Laura Withers, Director of Communications, NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association
November 30, 2018
NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association Chief Executive Officer Shirley Bloomfield was recognized by VoIP Review in a list of the Top 10 Women in Telecommunications honoring high-ranking female officials who have displayed profound knowledge, skills and influence in the traditionally male-dominated telecom industry.
Honorees were selected based on their technical business know-how, extensive experience, leadership and most significantly, their influence in an industry where high-ranking women officials were a rarity until recently. VoIP Review is an online magazine covering VoIP technology and the broader telecommunications industry.
Bloomfield is an expert on the role of federal communications policies in sustaining the vitality of rural and remote communities and the benefits rural broadband networks bring to the national economy. She has spent more than 30 years representing small, local communications providers in a variety of roles including government affairs and leadership posts at NTCA, Qwest and Verizon.
Recently, Bloomfield has led efforts to promote industry collaborations by building strategic partnerships and championing cooperation to seek synergies among rural telecom companies, their larger counterparts, other rural utilities and federal agencies. She has testified before Congress many times, including several appearances in 2018 on matters of national infrastructure investment, universal service, broadband deployment and rural economic development. Bloomfield also serves on the boards of the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative and GlobalWin, an organization of women leaders in the high-tech industry.
Bloomfield frequently contributes to her blog, Broadband Beat, and can be found on Twitter at @SBloomfield15.
