People

CHARLES M. DAVIDSON
Director, ACLP
Visiting Scholar, Media Center

Charles M. Davidson is a Director of the Advanced Communications Law & Policy Institute (ACLP) at New York Law School. Davidson oversees all aspects of the program, including its focus on broadband policy. The ACLP has published a number of papers and has hosted interdisciplinary public policy events on an array of broadband issues, with a particular emphasis on promoting broadband adoption. Davidson is currently co-authoring a series of papers for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that examine the many positive and the many potential impacts of broadband adoption on senior citizens, telemedicine, people with disabilities, and education – and the many legal and policy challenges that must be addressed for the full potential of broadband to be realized.

Prior to joining the ACLP, Davidson served as a Commissioner on the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC), the regulatory agency that oversees the state’s telecommunications, energy, and water industries. Before serving on the PSC, Davidson held a variety of positions in government and the private sector. His government work included serving as the Executive Director of Florida’s Information Technology Taskforce and as the Staff Director of the state’s first Committee on Information Technology. In the private sector, Davidson was an attorney in the New York offices of Baker & McKenzie and subsequently Duane Morris. He also served as the Chairman of ITFlorida, a nonprofit organization that promotes innovation in the state’s high-tech sector, and as a Special Professor at Hofstra University School of Law.

Davidson speaks and writes frequently on technology and public policy issues and has provided expert testimony before numerous state and federal bodies, including the U.S. House of Representatives and the FCC. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate, Davidson holds a Masters of Law in Trade Regulation from New York University, a Masters in International Business from Columbia University, and undergraduate and Juris Doctorate degrees from the University of Florida, where he served as a fellowship instructor at the College of Law.

MICHAEL J. SANTORELLI
Director, ACLP

Michael J. Santorelli is a Director of the Advanced Communications Law & Policy Institute (ACLP) at New York Law School. In that capacity, he oversees all aspects of the ACLP’s research and scholarly writing and coordinates student outreach efforts. In addition, Santorelli is responsible for developing and maintaining the ACLP’s core program as well as assisting in the organization of conferences, symposia, and other events sponsored by ACLP. Santorelli writes widely on broadband, telecommunications, wireless, and Internet law and public policy issues.

Immediately prior to joining the ACLP, Michael was the Policy Director for the New York City Council’s Committee on Technology in Government. As its lead staffer, he was responsible for organizing hearings and preparing policy papers on a diverse array of topics. Other duties included drafting legislation and working with local stakeholders – corporations, nonprofits, and individuals – to develop strategies for spurring use of emerging technologies among underserved populations.

Michael received his B.A., cum laude, from Tufts University, and his J.D., cum laude, from New York Law School.

THOMAS KAMBER, PHD.
Visting Fellow, ACLP
Executive Director & Founder
Older Adults Technology Services (OATS)

Visiting Fellow Dr. Thomas Kamber is the founding executive director of Older Adults Technology Services (OATS), where he has led the creation of the largest municipal technology program for senior citizens in the country—training more than 4000 senior citizens at over 30 locations since 2004 and leveraging over a million dollars in public and private financing. His work at OATS has been covered by The New York Times, NBC Channel 4 News, The New York Daily News, Fox 5 News, and NY1, and is featured in Generation Blend: Managing Across the Digital Age Gap.

Prior to founding OATS, Dr. Kamber held senior management positions at nonprofit housing and technology organizations, as well as political campaigns at the local, state, and national level. He is a co-founder and board member of the nonprofit Afro-Latin Jazz Alliance, is a board member of the Park Slope Geriatric Center, and is co-chair of the Housing and Human Services Committee for Brooklyn Community Board Six. In the private sector, he served as a senior brand strategist for D'Arcy advertising, where he helped design and implement communications strategy for Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, a leading global technology services corporation.

Dr. Kamber teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on social entrepreneurship and advocacy at Columbia University and the New School University, and has published widely on public policy topics. He has a B.A. from Columbia College and a Ph.D. from the City University of New York.

BRUCE LAI
Visiting Fellow, ACLP
Chief of Staff, Office of the Chief Technology Officer
NYC Department of Education

Bruce Lai is the Chief of Staff to the Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the New York City Department of Education (DOE), the largest public school district in the United States, with over 140,000 employees and serving over 1.1 million students and 800,000 parents. Mr. Lai serves as the chief strategy, change and innovation adviser to the Chief Information Officer of the New York City Department of Education (DOE), which is the largest K-12 school district in the United States, serving 1.1+ million students and 800,000 families in approximately 1500 schools. In this role, he leads the following functions for the DOE’s technology organization (500+ staff and consultants) – enterprise instructional technology strategy, new initiatives and innovations, business development and fundraising, marketing, communications and public relations, quality assurance and software testing, and school technology advisory services. Mr. Lai is the CIO’s and one of the Department’s key instructional technology strategists and plays the role of thought leader on all district-wide learning management and collaboration systems and tools used by students, educators, school leaders and parents to improve communication, collaboration, teaching and learning, inside and outside the classroom. He is also in charge of many of the new district-wide technology initiatives / innovations, including the piloting of low-cost computing devices, the CUNY tech intern program (on-site tech support by college students), free e-mail accounts for all students and parents, and the introduction of Apple’s Tunes U as a educational publishing and distribution platform.

Formerly, Mr. Lai was Chief of Staff to Council Member Gale A. Brewer, the Chair of the Committee on Technology in Government at the New York City Council. As her Chief of Staff, Mr. Lai was the chief policy, legislative, press and political advisor to the Council Member and directed the activities of the Committee on Technology in Government of the New York City Council. Before becoming Council Member Brewer’s chief aide, Mr. Lai was the Legislative Policy Analyst and lead staff person for the Council Member Brewer’s Committee on Technology in Government. He also has extensive experience in design, creation and implementation of performance management projects and spent several years helping design, create and implement one of the largest data warehouses for human services in New York City government. 

Mr. Lai graduated from Williams College and has a Master's degree in Public Policy (MPP) from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He serves as a board member of the Public Health Foundation Enterprises (PHFE), a national public health nonprofit organization, which is based in Los Angeles, CA, and the Insight Committee on Community and Economic Development (CCED), a national nonprofit research, consulting and legal organization dedicated to building economic health in disenfranchised communities, which is based in Oakland, CA.