Janet K. Poley
CEO and President, American Distance Education Consortium (ADEC)

Last degree: Ph.D., Adult and Continuing Education, University of Nebraska. As ADEC's President, Dr. Poley develops collaborative distance education initiatives and conducts research and education programs relating to information technology access and applications with more than 60 land-grant university faculty and international partners. She came to her present post in 1994, following a five-year stint as Director and Deputy Administrator for Communication, Information and Technology in the U.S. Department of Agriculture and earlier (1986-89) as Coordinator, Development Program Management Center in USDA's Office of International Cooperation and Development where she conducted training and consultancies in developing countries. In 1980-86, Dr. Poley was Chief of Party in Tanzania for the USAID-financed "Training for Rural Development I and II Project," for which effort she received the Excalibur Award from the U.S. Congress. Before joining the USDA in 1975, she was a faculty member of the University of Nebraska/Lincoln (UNL) in agricultural communications for nine years. (She continues today as a professor in UNL's College of Journalism and Institute of Agricultural and Natural Resources.) Dr. Poley has numerous journal articles, book chapters, and presentations to her credit, dealing chiefly with information technology and distance learning; presently she is co-authoring a book. She has also been a valued member of numerous boards and advisory councils.