An East L.A. native, USC’s vice president for state government relations has fought for universal broadband access for two decades. The pandemic has brought renewed attention to the issue — one that could make or break California’s future.
When Martha Escutia started worrying about the digital divide in the 1990s, almost nobody knew what that term meant.
“I was digging through the newspaper classifieds, the want ads,” remembered Escutia, USC’s vice president for state government relations and special counsel. “I noticed it was getting thin, and that got me thinking: Where is this information going? It was going online.”