Jabari Simama

Jabari Simama (born March 6, 1950 or 1951) is an American retired educator and public official. Simama served as President of Georgia Piedmont Technical College for six years. He also served as Deputy Chief Operating Officer of Development and Chief of Staff in DeKalb County government from 2009 to 2012. In 2001 he was the chief architect of a large municipal technology program, the Atlanta Community Technology Initiative, to bridge the digital divide where thousands of citizens were taught how to use computers and the internet. Simama also organized broadband in cities' and towns' summits from 2006 to 2009 in Columbia, South Carolina which explored how broadband technology can serve rural and urban communities. Featured in John Barber's book The Black Digital Elite: African American Leaders of the Information Revolution, published by Praeger Publishers, Simama is also the author of Civil Rights to Cyber Rights: Broadband & Digital Equality in the Age of Obama, published in July 2009.