Acting FCC Chair Rosenworcel Announces Staff Changes

Federal Communications Commission Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced senior staff changes to the Office of Managing Director and the Office of Communications Business Opportunities (OCBO). Sanford S. Williams will assume a senior leadership position in the Office of Managing Director as Deputy Managing Director. Williams will continue to serve as a Special Advisor to Acting Chairwoman Rosenworcel with a focus on agency efforts to identify and expand opportunities for communities that have been historically underserved. Joy M. Ragsdale, currently Field Counsel in the agency’s Enforcement Bureau, will now lead the Office of Communications Business Opportunities.

Williams served as the Director of the Office of Communications Business Opportunities, which promotes competition and innovation in telecommunications and information services and supports opportunities for small, women-owned, and minorityowned communications businesses. As leader of the Office of Communications Business Opportunities, Mr. Williams spearheaded work to promote digital empowerment, inclusion, equity, and diversity in the tech sector as part of the Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Empowerment; launched OCBO’s “Did You Know” public education video series spotlighting small, minority, and women-owned businesses and the various functions of the Office; and spoke publicly at numerous nationwide events to promote competition and innovation, and facilitate opportunities for small businesses.

Ragsdale is joining the Office of Communications Business Opportunities as Director. Since March 2018, she has served as Field Counsel in the agency’s Enforcement Bureau’s Office of the Field Director. In that role, she collaborated with field agents dedicated to resolving complex investigations involving public safety, interference mitigation, and broadcast matters. Her cases involved enforcement of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, and Commission rules governing television and radio station operations, Emergency Alert System regulation, Global Positioning Systems, terminal doppler weather radars, communications towers, and protecting against pirate radio stations. She also helped a noncommercial education broadcasting station with Emergency Alert System regulations compliance enabling the station to continue serving its community in Alaska during an earthquake and tsunami.