Susan Estrada

Founder of CERFnet, one of the original regional IP networks, Estrada is recognized as an Internet pioneer and named a "thinking nerd" by colleagues, with a deep interest in emerging broadband technologies and making those technologies work to solve real-world problems. As the President of the non-profit FirstMile.US, she has led the way to educate, advocate, and focus the debate on the power and promise of big broadband in the United States. Her vision is that every member of the American public would have access to big broadband, the 21st century pathway to a better overall quality of life.

Until March 2005, Estrada led CENIC's One Gigabit or Bust Initiative, providing the vision, the managerial savvy, and the technical know-how needed to bring the Initiative's multi-tiered goals to life. The Initiative brought together the interests of research, education, commerce, state and local government, and the general public to develop an action plan for delivery of one gigabit broadband capabilities to every educational institution, business, and home in California by 2010. Under her role as President of Aldea Communications, she has provided strategic marketing services to Internet and broadband-focused clients, including services such as government relations, meeting planning, and collateral development.

Estrada founded CERFnet in 1988. CERFnet was one of the original regional IP networks and served the academic and commercial communities in California. As Executive Director, she took the initial NSF funding ($2.8M) and successfully commercialized the network for both the academic and private sector users, growing from 25 sites to hundreds of sites. CERFnet was later sold to TCG and became part of AT&T.

CERFnet was a particularly visible network because Estrada was able to use a small amount of resources to achieve early commercial acceptance of the Internet—leading to the Interop Achievement Award in 1991. CERFnet developed a number of notable firsts for the Internet, including the first deployment of dialup IP, accounting reports for customers, and high quality service. Through her leadership and collaboration with PSInet and UUnet (now MCI), she helped form the interconnection enabling the first commercial Internet traffic via the Commercial Internet Exchange (CIX). Her high standards and attention to customer needs drove these and other developments.

Giving practical advice on getting the best Internet service, Estrada wrote Connecting to the Internet, An O'Reilly Buyer's Guide in August 1993, a Barnes and Noble bestseller. She has been invited to speak on diverse subjects including education using the Internet, business on the Internet, and connecting to the Internet, and has been consistently praised in evaluations for her down-to-earth presentation delivery.

As a parent of two children, she is strongly committed to enhancing educational programs using communications technology. Among other activities, Estrada played an instrumental role by co-founding the Global Schoolhouse and organizing the California branch of Tech Corps. She has served as a Board member of the Public Interest Registry.

She has served as an appointed member of the FCC's Technological Advisory Committee, an elected Trustee of the Internet Society, a founder of the Commercial Internet Exchange (CIX), a former Area Director for the Internet Engineering Software Group (IESG), and a member of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Estrada has also served as an appointed member of SBC/Pacific Telesis' Telecommunications Consumer Advisory Panel and a former member of the U.S. Federal Networking Council's Advisory Committee (FNCAC). She is listed in the Millennium and 1998–1999 editions of Who's Who in Executives and Professionals.