Susan Estrada
President, Aldea Communications
Expertise
Since 1993, UCLA engineering graduate Susan Estrada has lead Aldea’s technology efforts. Her project management skills, ability to think out-of-the-box and manage work for multiple clients simultaneously leads to satisfied clients and delivery of on-time, on-budget projects and services.
• She developed the strategy for Aldea’s Happy@Home (tm), a new concept in affordable technology for independent living. Our customer care program and rigorous in-lab testing means great performance with no worries.
• She is deeply steeped in Internet and broadband technologies, policies and operations through her contract work with rural municipal governments, FirstMile.US and academic networks like CENIC, Internet2 and National LambdaRail.
• She authored or co-authored seminal broadband infrastructure reports such as the One Gigabit or Bust report, a California state-funded effort in the early 2000s.
• Gifted at coordinating staffing and work products in a matrix model, she seamlessly coordinates work among client employees, Aldea staff and outside contractors, providing transparent project management in an enthusiastic and productive way.
Education
University of California at Los Angeles, B.S., 1978
Engineering with a Specialty in Mechanics
Appointments
Employment
1993-present President and CEO, Aldea Communications
1993 Author, Connecting to the Internet, O’Reilly and Associates, Publisher
1985-1993 Data Communications Manager, San Diego Supercomputer Center, Executive Director, CERFnet, General Atomics
1982-1985 Engineering Project Manager, International New Business, AT&T
1980-1982 EADAS/NM Manager, AT&T Long Lines
1978-1980 Switch Engineer, Pacific Telephone
Honorary
2005-2010 FirstMile.US, President
2005-2008 Public Interest Registry (.ORG), Board of Directors and Chairman
1999-2003 Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Technological Advisory Council
1996-2000 Pacific Bell/SBC Telecommunications Consumer Advisory Panel, Member
1996 Federal Networking Council Advisory Committee, Member
1990-1993 Commercial Internet Exchange, Board of Directors and President
1993-1999 Internet Society, Board of Trustees
1990-1991 Internet Engineering Task Force/Internet Engineering Steering Committee, Operations Area Director
1989-1993 Federation of American Research Networks (FARNET), Member and Various Officer Positions
Biography
Since 1993, UCLA engineering graduate Susan Estrada has lead Aldea’s technology efforts as president and CEO. Aldea’s current focus is aging-in-place technologies that leverage broadband. Aldea’s Happy@Home (tm) is a new concept in affordable technology for independent living.) Aldea's mission is to facilitate the ongoing growth and success of client broadband and Internet strategies, products and services with on-time, on-budget project management and implementation.
Named a "thinking nerd" by colleagues, Susan has a deep interest in emerging broadband and Internet technologies and the ability to make those technologies work to solve real-world problems. Her current interests involve both operational broadband and Internet technologies and broadening public understanding of technology value in everyday life, especially for senior citizens. Big broadband demand creation is also an area where she works with FirstMile.US and other organizations to research, develop and implement public benefit solutions. For over 5 years, she participated with the academic research and education community through National LamdbaRail outreach activities and recently worked with many national and regional networks to coordinate the Catalyst@EDU partnership.
In 2007, she co-chaired the U.S. Department of Energy workshop on Cyber Security Research Needs for Open Science resulting in a letter report and a final report.
As the leader of the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California's (CENIC) One Gigabit or Bust Initiative from its inception through 2005, Susan provided the vision, the managerial savvy and the technical know-how needed to bring the initiative's multitiered 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.
Susan founded CERFnet in 1988. CERFnet was one of the original regional IP networks. It 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 is now part of AT&T. CERFnet was a particularly visible network because Ms. 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.
During her 5-year tenure as the CERFnet executive director, she was instrumental in CERFnet’s user growth from 25 university members to hundreds of corporate members and thousands of individual users. CERFnet developed a number of notable firsts for the Internet including the first deployment of dial-up IP, accounting reports for customers, and high quality service.
Giving practical advice on getting the best Internet service, Susan wrote Connecting to the Internet: An O’Reilly Buyer’s Guide, in August 1993 (a Barnes and Noble bestseller). Susan has been invited to speak on diverse subjects including education using the Internet, business on the Internet, and connecting to the Internet. She is consistently praised in evaluations for her down-to-earth presentation delivery.
Through her CERFnet leadership and collaboration with PSInet and UUnet, Susan helped form the interconnection enabling the first commercial Internet traffic via the Commercial Internet Exchange (CIX). Susan’s high standards and attention to customer needs drove these and other developments. The original CIX router is now in theSmithsonian Museum of American History.
As a parent of two, Susan is strongly committed to enhancing educational programs using communications technology. Among other activities, Susan played an instrumental role by co-founding the Global Schoolhouse and organizing the California branch of Tech Corps.
Susan recently achieved a NAHB Certified Aging in Place certification. She is on the steering committee of the San Diego County Technology and Aging Coalition and co-leads its Outreach group. She is a member of the San Diego Caregiver Coalition. Susan served as president of FirstMile.US. Susan served as a board member of the Public Interest Registry (PIR). She was an appointed member to the FCC's Technological Advisory Committee. She was an elected Trustee of the Internet Society, a founder of the Commercial Internet Exchange(CIX), a former area director for the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). She was an appointed member of SBC/Pacific Telesis’s Telecommunications Consumer Advisory Panel and the 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.
An innovator and entrepreneur, Susan’s experience includes over 30 years association with telecommunications and network management.