DeAnne Cuellar

DeAnne Cuellar is a digital equity advocate and communications strategist from San Antonio, Texas. She is currently the Community Broadband Outreach Team Lead for the Institute for Local Self Reliance (ILSR). Previously, she served as the Texas State Director of Older Adults Technology Services (OATS), and was Mayor Ron Nirenberg’s digital inclusion appointee to the City of San Antonio’s Innovation & Technology Committee. After an FCC localism hearing in 2004, she co-founded the Media Justice League with the Office of Communication, Inc., and grassroots organizations in San Antonio, advocating media justice and digital inclusion for historically underrepresented communities. As a young woman she actively organized within the independent music and media community for several years, challenging racist, sexist, homophobic, and classist representations of San Antonians and South Texas communities. She worked with groups to spearhead media monitoring research, local-to-local media literacy initiatives, and advocated at the local, state, and national level to sustain community environments that strive to provide accurate media representation of local communities, technology-inspired skills programs and affordable internet access in Texas. With 10+ years of project management and political consulting experience, she interacts with great care and respect when working with elected officials and their staff, media organizations, as well as with different companies, consultants and collective impact initiatives. She blogs about music, media, and technology on mikkawerks.com and is a freelance photographer published in the Huffington Post, Bustle, San Antonio Current, and the Express-News. The media spokespeople and social influencers she has developed who represent an array of socio-economic issues have been featured through national and online media affiliates such as Teen Vogue, HBO, Vice, CNN, and more.

DeAnne is a sought after advocate focused on fostering equitable Internet access for all, and specializes in using her media and advocacy experience to implement effective digital communications to improve the quality and quantity of media coverage representing Texans.

Sub-specialties:
Digital Inclusion, Tech Equity, Data Justice, and Neurodiversity.