A Rural Calling: Peggy Schaffer

Once upon a time, not so very long ago, high-speed internet was a luxury to which to aspire. Can you remember such a time? Rural Americans certainly can. Fortunately, today, for many but not all, triple-digit Mbps download speeds are available and reasonably affordable. Peggy Schaffer is among the broadband advocate-actualizers who’ve helped relegate those days to a faint memory. Schaffer – a resident of the rural Maine town of Vassalboro, midway between Portland and Bangor – has served in multiple roles in advancing rural broadband in her home state and beyond. She was co-chair of the Maine Broadband Coalition, director of the ConnectMaine Authority and served on the State Broadband Leaders Network. She’s now a board member of the American Association for Public Broadband and a strategic adviser to VETRO FiberMap. She’s assumed these duties because she recognized some years ago what high-speed internet access could afford and what its absence would curtail. She recognized it would be every bit as important, if not more so, for rural residents as urban.