Kristin Parsley Atkins is director of Wireless Reach™ within Qualcomm’s Government Affairs division. Qualcomm believes access to 3G and next-generation mobile technologies can improve people’s lives. Qualcomm’s Wireless Reach initiative is a strategic program that brings wireless technology to underserved communities globally. By working with partners, Wireless Reach invests in projects that foster entrepreneurship, aid in public safety, enhance the delivery of health care, enrich teaching and learning and improve environmental sustainability. To date, Wireless Reach has 64 projects in 27 countries.
Atkins oversees Wireless Reach initiatives in Europe, the Middle East and the United States, with a special focus on K-12 education in the U.S. Wireless Reach believes the use of “always on, always connected” mobile devices in the hands of K-12 students has the potential to dramatically improve educational outcomes by providing both unprecedented access to learning resources and the ability to collaborate with peers and advisors in and out of the classroom.
To help drive the wireless mobile device education platform forward, and as a step towards demonstrating the use of wireless devices as a productive educational tool in and out of school, under Atkins direction, Wireless Reach is supporting a number of pilot studies that are investigating various methods of how to overcome the barriers of adoption.
Atkins helps lead the Wireless Education Technology conference (www.wirelessedtech.com) in Washington, D.C., which brings together a diverse group of stakeholders including leaders in business, K-12, higher education and government to discuss the barriers and find solutions for schools to implement 1:1 mobile learning programs. She is on the Consortium for School Networking Advisory Committee for the Leadership for Mobile Learning Initiative and is a member of the International Society for Teaching in Education. In addition she is on the board for Summerbridge, a San Diego-based non-profit that provides year-round educational programs for at-risk elementary school children to prepare them for high school; and to attract bright college students to the teaching profession.
Atkins received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. She lives in San Diego with her husband and two children.
