MCNC's Community Connect Podcast

For 15 years, MCNC has shared a dozen stories each December to create the 12 Days of Broadband . For the final day of this year's campaign, we are pleased to share an exclusive podcast with the MCNC Senior Leadership as they reflect on the past year and look ahead to 2026.

On today's MCNC Community Connect podcast, MCNC President and CEO Tracy Doaks pulls the curtain back and talks about what it takes to build and operate a world- class broadband network. She is joined by Chauncey Ray, MCNC's Senior Manager of Facilities Engineering and Operations; Jeremy Rollins, MCNC’s Senior Manager of Outside Plant Engineering and Operations; Matthew Valenzisi; MCNC’s Senior Dir...

On today's MCNC Community Connect podcast, MCNC Chief Marketing Officer and Senior Director of Client Advocacy James Nester is joined by Phil Emer, MCNC Vice President of Business Development; Jen Leasure, President and CEO of The Quilt; Ray Zeisz, Senior Director of the Technology Infrastructure Lab at the Friday Institute; and Kristen Corra, policy counsel at the Schools, Health & Libraries...

On today's MCNC Community Connect podcast, MCNC President and CEO Tracy Doaks is joined by John Graham, president of the North Carolina Telehealth Network Association (NCTNA), Jordan Rodgers, director of relationship marketing at NCTNA, and Ed Turlington and Drew Moretz from Brooks Pierce LLP in Raleigh. The focus of the conversation dives into the world of legislative advocacy – what it is, why i...

For 14 years, MCNC has shared a dozen stories in December to create the 12 Days of Broadband . For the final day of this year's campaign, we are pleased to share an exclusive podcast with the MCNC Senior Leadership as they reflect on 2024 and look forward to an exciting 2025.

On today's MCNC Community Connect podcast, MCNC President and CEO Tracy Doaks is joined by Marshall Cherry, Chief Executive Officer of Roanoke Cooperative; Bo Coughlin, Chief Operations Officer at FYBE; and Jim Nester, MCNC’s Senior Director of Marketing and Client Advocacy, to discuss the story behind the creation of eNCore. eNCore was formed as a shared call to action to remedy the technology in...

On today's MCNC Community Connect podcast, MCNC President and CEO Tracy Doaks is joined by Nate Denny, Deputy Secretary of Broadband and Digital Equity at the North Carolina Department of Information Technology, and MCNC Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Tommy Jacobson to discuss this exciting new project that officially broke ground in Sanford on Sept. 5.

For a dozen years, MCNC has highlighted a 12 broadband-related stories throughout December to create the 12 Days of Broadband. For the final day of this year's campaign, we are pleased to share insights from the entire MCNC Senior Leadership Team via a podcast as they look back at the successes of this year and look forward to an exciting year in 2024.

On the latest MCNC Community Connect podcast, MCNC President and CEO Tracy Doaks is joined by MCNC Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Tommy Jacobson to discuss the exciting new HERO Project.  The lack of high-speed Internet and technology for many in North Carolina, particularly in rural areas, has deep social and economic consequences. Over the next few months, you’ll be seeing and hearin...

On the latest episode  of MCNC's Community Connect podcast, MCNC President and CEO Tracy Doaks is joined by Jeremy Collins, founder and president of Providence Omnistructure.   Listen as Tracy and Jeremy discuss Providence’s social enterprise model in Williamston as a way to build an innovation corridor to surrounding areas in Eastern North Carolina. This important work includes boosting broadband...

Tracy Doaks, Tommy Jacobson, and the rest of MCNC's Senior Leadership Team reflect on the past year of growth for MCNC and look ahead to the future of broadband in North Carolina. 

On this epsiode, MCNC President & CEO Tracy Doaks is joined by two experts working to bring digital equity and inclusion to Winston Salem and surrounding Forsyth County: Lakisha Jordan, executive director of WinstonNet, and Layla Garms, the Equity in Education program officer at The Winston-Salem Foundation.   Listen as Tracy, Lakisha, and Layla provide insight into the socio-economic barriers...

In this episode, MCNC President and CEO Tracy Doaks sits down with members of the MCNC Vital Cyber and K12 teams to examine cybersecurity in education, why it has become a hot target for criminals, and how institutions and staff can maximize resources to mitigate the growing number of attacks and threats increasing almost daily. 

On the third episode of MCNC’s Community Connect Podcast, our host Tracy Doaks is joined by experts in the area of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI): Dr. Marc Hoit, Vice Chancellor for IT and Chief Information Officer at NC State University, and Stephanie Jane Edwards, Senior GIS Analyst and Digital Inclusion Liaison at MCNC. Listen as they discuss a range of topics, first illustrating what D...

The second episode of MCNC’s Community Connect Podcast, our host Tracy Doaks, MCNC’s President and CEO, is joined by two experts in the Healthcare Connect Fund Discounts program and providing broadband connectivity to rural healthcare locations: Tracy Olson,  e xecutive director of the North Carolina Telehealth Network Association ( NCTNA ), and John Graham, president of the NCTNA board of directo...

On this premiere episode of MCNC’s Community Connect Podcast, our host Tracy Doaks, MCNC’s President and CEO, is joined by two experts in the fields of cybersecurity: Chris Beal, MCNC Vice President of Security Initiatives & Chief Information Security Officer, and Douglas Holland, Senior Solutions Engineer for Akamai. Listen as they discuss a host of topics starting with world events – particu...