FCC’s Rosenworcel Announces Staff Changes

Acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel today made senior staff changes to the Office of Managing Director and the Office of Communications Business Opportunities (OCBO).

Effective today, Sanford S. Williams will assume a senior leadership position in the Office of Managing Director as deputy managing director. Joy M. Ragsdale, currently field counsel in the agency’s Enforcement Bureau, will now lead the Office of Communications Business Opportunities.

Rosenworcel said: “I want to thank both Sanford and Joy for their years of service to the Commission.  Both of their teams have benefitted greatly from their expertise, and I look forward to continuing to work with them as they pursue new opportunities within the agency.”

Prior to his new role, Williams was 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 minority-owned communications businesses.

As leader of the Office of Communications Business Opportunities, 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.

Williams will continue to serve as a special adviser to Rosenworcel with a focus on agency efforts to identify and expand opportunities for communities that have been historically underserved.

Williams has worked in various roles at the FCC since 1999.  Prior to his career in public service, he worked as an attorney for Womble, Carlyle, Sandridge & Rice and taught at Augusta State University in Georgia.

Williams graduated from Cornell University earning his undergraduate degree in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering and a master’s in business administration from the Johnson School of Management. He earned his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law.

Ragsdale is joining the Office of Communications Business Opportunities as director.

Since March 2018, she has been 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.

Previously, Ragsdale was an attorney adviser in the Enforcement Bureau’s Investigations and Hearings Division resolving complex investigations that involved media, cable, and telecommunications issues. In this role, Ragsdale was involved in an investigation into a major communications company’s billing practices resulting in a multi-million-dollar settlement.

Ragsdale joined the FCC in 2008 serving as an attorney adviser in the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau’s Policy Division, working on the 800 MHz spectrum rebanding and the National Broadband Plan. She was also detailed to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration Broadband Technologies Opportunities Program as a program officer.

Prior to joining the Commission, Ragsdale worked as an associate at Troutman Sanders LLP, in the firm’s telecommunications and technology group. Earlier in her career, she worked as a telecommunications attorney in the Office of the People’s Counsel for the District of Columbia.

Ragsdale graduated from Howard University’s School of Business earning an undergraduate degree in finance. She earned her law degree from the Howard University School of Law.