National LambdaRail, Inc. (NLR), a consortium of leading U.S. research universities and private sector technology companies, announced it has appointed Debra (Debbie) Montano as NLR Director, Development and Operations, effective January 5, 2004. In this role, Montano will oversee all tactical planning, design, implementation and operations of NLR's national optical and network infrastructure and advanced services. She will report to NLR President and CEO, Tom West. Montano's primary focus will be on the national infrastructure implementation, the integration of technical support services, and the development of a future engineering vision in collaboration with the NLR membership. She will also play a key advisory role in the strategic direction of the organization and coordinate with the NLR Network Research Committee to make certain that NLR resources are committed to network and experimental research. "Debbie Montano brings 17 years of experience in network design and development to NLR," said West. "Her extensive knowledge of building an advanced nationwide IP backbone network, advanced Internet architecture and optical networking coupled with her proven leadership, organizational and technical project management skills will benefit NLR tremendously, as we move forward to complete the national infrastructure." Prior to NLR, Montano spent more than five years at Qwest Communications International, Inc., where she served as Director Advanced Internet Initiatives. In this position, Montano was instrumental in making the nationwide Internet2 Abilene Network a reality and ensuring its continued innovation and growth. As the Qwest liaison to the Quilt, a coalition of more than 20 leading regional R&E networking organizations (GigaPOPs) across the United States, Montano ensured a close relationship and great Internet service delivery to this important community. Montano also enhanced Qwest's collaboration and partnership with a number of advanced networking endeavors including the DARPA Next Generation Internet Supernet project, the Energy Sciences Network (ESnet), and the high performance networking and computing SCxy (SC99-03) conferences. Montano holds a B.S. in Computer Science and Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she focused on software and computer engineering, artificial intelligence, architecture of digital systems, extensive applied mathematics, electrical engineering and writing.