The Schools and Libraries Division announced April 4 that SLD Counsel Ellen Youdin Wolfhagen has been appointed to the new post of director of service provider support. In the new position, the SLD said, Wolfhagen will supervise the coordination of "communications and service delivery to service provider clients" and report to SLD President Kate Moore.
In a statement, Moore said, "Ms. Wolfhagen has a real appreciation for the complexities of the program and its impacts on both the large and small service providers who are part of the E-rate community. It is critically important that we focus attention on service provider issues so that service providers can provide their customers with discounts on a timely basis."
Before joining USAC in April 1999, Wolfhagen represented the State of Washington Department of Information Services in its capacity as both an applicant and service provider to the E-rate program and served on the SLD's Year 3 Task Force. On March 23, the FCC granted the Washington DIS a waiver of its rules barring ineligible consortia members from receiving services at below-tariffed rates, but denied its petition to reconsider the FCC's rules on the matter. Washington DIS had filed its petition on July 16, 1997.
Matt Harcourt, a more junior SLD staff member, had been in charge of vendor support, but left the agency recently to join Cabletron. The SLD said the Universal Service Administrative Company will recruit to fill the vacancy for an attorney, who will report to the USAC general counsel.
