2015 Awardee Profiles

Meredith Attwell Baker joined CTIA–The Wireless Association as its President and CEO in June 2014.  She brings extensive experience on spectrum issues and wireless policy and a keen understanding of how government and business must work together to drive innovation.

Prior to joining CTIA, Mrs. Baker served as Senior Vice President of Government Affairs at Comcast NBCUniversal, where she was responsible for developing policy positions on legislative and regulatory issues and representing those positions before Congress, the Administration, and government agencies.  Appointed by President Barack Obama in 2009, Mrs. Baker served as a Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) until June 2011.  During her tenure, she championed a forward-looking approach to spectrum management issues as well as a flexible regulatory environment to encourage continued innovation and competition.

Before joining the FCC, Mrs. Baker served in the Bush Administration as Acting Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information as well as Acting Administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).  While at NTIA, she facilitated the nation’s historic transition to digital television, which freed commercial spectrum for wireless companies, and promoted market-based policies that encouraged innovation.

Mrs. Baker holds a B.A. degree from Washington and Lee University and a law degree from the University of Houston.  She is a member of the Texas State Bar.  Mrs. Baker and her husband, Jamie, reside in McLean, Virginia.  She has four stepdaughters.

Peggy Noonan is a widely admired and award-winning columnist for The Wall Street Journal, where her column, “Declarations,” has run since the year 2000.  Her work has been lauded as “passionate, patriotic and persuasive” and as “must-reading for the understanding of American politics.”

In 2011, Ms. Noonan was honored as Columnist of the Year by The Week, which said of her work: “In an era of rigid polarization, she embraces the nearly lost art of open-mindedness.”  Her prose, said the magazine, “is subtle and striking, and the clarity of her observations can be devastating.”  In 2010, Ms. Noonan received the Tex McCrary Journalism Award given by the Medal of Honor Society, composed of living recipients of the Medal of Honor.  She has called this the highest honor of her career.

Ms. Noonan is the author of nine books on American politics and culture, among them her early political classic, What I Saw at the Revolution, and her bestselling biography of Ronald Reagan, When Character Was King.  She was a special assistant and speechwriter to President Ronald Reagan.  Ms. Noonan is a member of the board of trustees of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Library.  She is the author most recently of The Time of Our Lives, a collection of columns and essays to be published in November 2015.

Ms. Noonan was born in Brooklyn, New York, received her B.A. degree from Fairleigh Dickinson University, and lives in New York City.