By Donna Yasay, HomeGrid Forum President
It is with great pleasure that I am sharing the news that Barbara Stark, HomeGrid Forum Chair of the Board of Directors and LMTS at AT&T, has become the first female ever to receive a ‘Distinguished Fellow Award’ during the Broadband Forum 2017 First Quarter Annual Meeting (20-23 March 2017, Chicago, USA).
This award is given to individuals who have been a major influence on the direction and success of broadband development over an extended period, and are seen as key individuals within the Broadband Forum.
Going above and beyond what is necessary, Distinguished Fellows help the Forum to breakthrough into new areas of technology, and make significant contributions toward the continued growth of the industry.
Being the first woman to receive this award is a significant achievement not only for Barbara individually, but for the whole technology industry, which is starting to recognize and appreciate the contributions that women around the world are making. This recognition is the only way we will be able to create strong role models who can encourage females to take up STEM subjects and forge a career within one of these fields.
An active member of both HomeGrid Forum and Broadband Forum, with over 25 years’ experience, Barbara has continually shown her commitment to the broadband industry. Since 1999, Barbara has been active at almost all the Broadband Forum quarterly meetings and has played an integral role in several of the Forum’s Working Areas (WA).
Barbara’s dedication to the end-user experience within home-networking is an inspiration to us all, and it is wonderful to see her hard work recognized by her industry peers. Congratulations Barbara, from everyone at the HomeGrid Forum!
You can read the full news release from the Broadband Forum here.