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Julie Wenah Appointed to Federal Communications Commission

Julie Wenah was recently appointed to the board of the FCC, Federal Communications Commission. The associate general counsel and product lead for Civil Rights with Meta, formerly Facebook, is an attorney for Meta with seven years of technology experience focused on anti-discrimination efforts and integrating product remediations and product mitigations as technical solutions. As a representative of the trade association Encompass, she advocates for laws and policies promoting competition, innovation, and economic development. “I am honored to serve on the FCC and in this capacity and I think of my late parents who emigrated from a small village in Nigeria with no access to broadband and bandwidth,” she said.

Published

2 years ago

August 17, 2024

Oakland Post

Julie Wenah, Associate Genersl Counsre and Product Lead for Civil Rights with Meta (formerly Facebook). Photo courtesy of Julie Wenah.

By Carla Thomas

Julie Wenah was recently appointed to the board of the FCC, Federal Communications Commission.

The associate general counsel and product lead for Civil Rights with Meta, formerly Facebook, is an attorney for Meta with seven years of technology experience focused on anti-discrimination efforts and integrating product remediations and product mitigations as technical solutions.

As a representative of the trade association Encompass, she advocates for laws and policies promoting competition, innovation, and economic development.

“I am honored to serve on the FCC and in this capacity and I think of my late parents who emigrated from a small village in Nigeria with no access to broadband and bandwidth,” she said.

Wenah explained that her parents’ village was reminiscent of the rural communities she advocated for during her time with the federal government for a decade, where she led a manufacturing agenda in rural communities across the United States.

Wenah boasts a resume that includes stints with the Obama Administration, Airbnb, NASA, and the U.S. Department of Commerce. Through the Tahirih Justice Center Advisory Council, she is dedicated to supporting human trafficking survivors.

As a board director for Women In Product, she equips women in product management careers with equitable opportunities to thrive and shape the industry. Role by role, Wenah has used her gifts to change the world and is unstoppable.

Last year, she initiated Project Height, a partnership that provided nearly 30 college students with scholarships of $10,000 each and an invitation to participate in Meta-sponsored programming designed to further explore technology through a civil rights lens in the areas of data science, product management, and inclusive design and user experience.

The scholarship is named after the late Dr. Dorothy Irene Height, who served as the president of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) for more than 40 years. The funding is the joint initiative of NCNW, the Dorothy Irene Height Education Foundation (DIHEF), and Meta.

Dorothy I. Height Education Foundation President Alexis Herman said the scholarships awarded “represent an investment in their ongoing education, and these scholars represent a collective investment for increased innovation and a more hopeful future of our world.”

“It was thrilling to partner with the Dorothy I. Height Education Foundation and the National Council of Negro Women to announce the Project Height Scholarship award recipients,” said Wenah. “Our hope is that our joint commitment to investing in the next generation of leaders committed to the intersection of civil rights and technology will spark the minds that build a more inclusive and equitable society.”

Wenah says Dr. Height has always been a source of inspiration to her. “Dr. Height lived her life for the betterment of others,” said Wenah. “She stood in the face of racism and unfairness fearlessly and tirelessly, and we stand on her shoulders,” said Wenah.

Wenah’s fight for equity and justice to offset racism, discrimination, and marginalism continues with her work on the board of the Digital Civil Rights Coalition. In this role she and her team seek to transform regulations and advance an inclusive digital technology ecosystem. “With law as a vehicle, we hope to transform the technology ecosystem at its core and equalize outcomes in the future that everyone deserves.”

When Wenah is not on the front lines in court fighting for an expanded playing field for the underserved or overlooked, she leads a growing collective through the Album and the Mixtape, her way of giving a voice to passionate creatives looking for an outlet to share their fire.

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Poll Shows Support for Policies That Help Families Afford Child Care

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

Published

3 days ago

March 2, 2026

Oakland Post

By First Five Years Fund

New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

The national survey was conducted by UpOne Insight on behalf of the First Five Years Fund from January 13–18, 2026.

Key findings include:

• Parents need help: 80% of voters say the ability of working parents to find and afford child care is either in a state of crisis or a major problem.

• This is an affordability issue: 82% believe federal child care funding will help lower costs for working families — including 69% of Republicans, 84% of Independents, and 94% of Democrats.

• And there continues to be strong support (62%) for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), a federal program that makes it possible for hundreds of thousands of families to afford safe, quality care for their children while parents work or go to school, including a majority of Republicans, 63% of Independents and 72% of Democrats.

• Support for funding child care programs remains strong: 75% believe child care funding should be increased or kept at current levels — including 75% of Republicans, 85% of Independents, and 97% of Democrats.

• 74% say funding for child care is an important and good use of tax dollars, including a majority of Republicans, three-quarters of Independents, and nine in ten Democrats.

FFYF Executive Director Sarah Rittling said, “Voters across the country are sending a clear message: federal child care and early learning programs work. These investments help parents stay in the workforce, strengthen families, and support healthy child development. They have also long had strong bipartisan support in Congress. At a time when affordability is top of mind for families, continued federal funding is essential to ensure child care remains accessible and within reach.”

First Five Years Fund works to protect, prioritize, and build bipartisan support for quality child care and early learning programs at the federal level. Reliable, affordable, and high-quality early learning and child care can be transformative, not only enhancing a child’s prospects for a brighter future but also bolstering working parents and fostering economic stability nationwide.

We work with Congress and the Administration to identify federal solutions that work for families with young children, as well as states and communities. We work with policymakers to identify ways to increase access to affordable, high-quality child care and early learning programs for children. And we collaborate with advocacy groups to help align best practices with the best possible policies. http://www.ffyf.org

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Oakland Post: Week of February 25 – March 3, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – February 25 – March 3, 2026

Published

4 days ago

March 1, 2026

Oakland Post

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Trump’s MAGA Allies are Creating Executive Order Plan to Steal the 2026 Midterms

NNPA NEWSWIRE — The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

Published

6 days ago

February 27, 2026

Oakland Post

By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

A group of MAGA pro-Trump activists, who say they are working in coordination with the White House, are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that would claim without evidence that China interfered with the 2020 presidential election. Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential to President Joe Biden by over 7 million votes. Since Trump lost to Biden in 2020, he has repeatedly claimed that the election was “stolen” without evidence. The report of a group of “Trump allies” preparing an executive order to give Trump power over elections was first reported by The Washington Post.

The lies around the right-wing campaign that pushed falsehoods that the 2020 election was stolen was trafficked through right-wing media, particularly Fox News. Fox News was then sued for defamation for the claims by Dominion Voting Systems. Fox lost the case and had to settle for the largest defamation amount on record of $787.5 million in April 2023.

The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

The story in The Washington Post arrives as Trump increasingly signals that he may take actions that would alter the result of the 2026 midterms. The Republicans are widely expected to lose as their approval ratings plummet as a result of a failing economy under Trump. Over 50 members of Congress have announced they will retire this year and not return in 2027.

The Trump Department of Justice, which now has a large image of Trump on the side of it, “sued five new states Thursday [Feb. 26, 2026] demanding access to their unredacted voter rolls — escalating a campaign that has been rejected by multiple federal courts and faces resistance from Republican-led states as well,” according to Democracy Docket, a group that works to protect voting rights.

Trump claimed back in late 2020, the last year of his first term, that he had the authority to issue an executive order related to mail-in voting for the 2020 elections — which he would then lose. But the Constitution states that control of elections lies with the states. As the GOP works to place hurdles in front of voting, Democrats worked to make voting easier.

In March 2021, President Biden signed an executive order calling on federal agencies to expand voting access as part of the Biden Administration’s effort “to promote and defend the right to vote for all Americans who are legally entitled to participate in elections.”

Trump’s focus is clearly on altering the November 2026 midterm elections. Trump’s polling numbers and the elections and special elections that have taken place around the U.S. over the last year clearly indicate that Republicans are about to be hit by a blue wave of Democratic victories.

Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent investigative journalist and the founder of Black Virginia News. She is a political analyst who appears on #RolandMartinUnfiltered and hosts the show LAUREN LIVE on YouTube @LaurenVictoriaBurke. She can be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke