Donna T. Couey

Donna T. Couey spent more than thirty years in community media and public-interest communications in Montgomery County, Maryland, serving as Media Services Manager and Digital Equity Programs Co-Manager where her responsibilities included developing broadband technology and digital equity strategies, managing County Cable Montgomery, the county's award-winning government access channel, and overseeing the technical operations of eleven public, education, and government channels. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Mass Media Arts from Hampton University and a Juris Doctor from George Washington University. She served on the ACM national board of directors for six years and chaired the board during the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, then also served on the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors board. She retired in January 2022 and received the ACM's Sue Miller Buske Leadership Award in 2023.

Her dual expertise in law and media management gave her work at Montgomery County a policy depth that informed both the county's cable franchise negotiations and its digital equity strategy, connecting the older framework of PEG access to the newer framework of broadband as civic infrastructure.

Donna's career reflects the evolution of community media leadership from cable access management into the broader challenge of ensuring that communications infrastructure, whether cable, broadband, or streaming, serves the public rather than simply the market.