Laura Withers, IOM, is vice president of strategic communications for NTCA. She oversees communication of NTCA’s mission, objectives, policy positions and employee benefits offerings to enhance and increase the association’s visibility and effectiveness for members. Since joining NTCA, Laura has helped promote small, rural broadband providers as technology solution providers delivering the broadband future for rural America by, among other things, contributing to the association’s Smart Communities brand representing a network of more than 200 rural communities leveraging fiber broadband to support economic development, precision agriculture, remote education and telemedicine. She is passionate about telling great stories, and before joining NTCA she was a newspaper reporter and editor.