OSP®'s monthly columnists combine over 100 years of industry experience to provide OSP® readers the most up-to-date information regarding engineering and deployment of broadband networks.

Sharon Vollman is vice president, editorial director of OSP®. She oversees all editorial processes and staff for OSP® Magazine, the OSP® enewsletter, www.ospmag.com and leads the educational content development for the OSP EXPO and several roundtable events. Vollman has created educational partnerships with the major LECs including AT&T, BellSouth and Qwest. She has covered the telecom industry since 1996, when she joined OSP® magazine as editor. Prior to that she worked in advertising with Ogilvy & Mather and CME. Vollman has a bachelor's degree in journalism/advertising from the University of Iowa.

Don is the OSP Expert columnist for OSP® Magazine, providing tutorials and valuable training information for the telecom professionals and techs in the field. Don McCarty's expertise spans over 38 years. Through McCarty Products, he provides on-site training for field technicians, engineers, training personnel and managers of CLECs and ILECs as well as executives and managers of major equipment providers. In his courses, he and his trainers discusses technical issues around cable fault locating in a digital world. McCarty also trains power company technicians and consults with managers about noise problems that occur in the gray area of responsibility between the telcos and the power providers.

McCarty Products is an industry-leading training and consulting organization for troubleshooting and maintaining telephone cable in a digital world. Their comprehensive outside plant training courses combined with training products provide telcos with excellent support to help them increase effectiveness of telephone repair technicians and managers while maximizing their investment test equipment.

Don McCarty
McCarty Products, Inc.

Email: dmmcarty@mccartyinc.com
www.mccartyinc.com

The first 28 years of Mr. Stoffels' career were spent at Automatic Electric where much of his time was spent in the Laboratory organization developing over nine U.S. patents. Some of these patents encompass the development of message switching systems which in principal are no different from the systems now used today for email. Bob took an early retirement from the Automatic Electric in 1979 and took on the job as Editor of TE&M magazine, later renamed America's Network. He stayed with TE&M until 1994. In1996 Mr. Stoffels became Contributing Editor at OSP® Magazine. Mr. Stoffels has served on the board of directors of the National Exchange Carrier Association for approximately eight years, and continues in that capacity today. Bob and his wife, Jan, are members of the Academy of Senior Professionals at Eckerd College where Bob served as president for two years. Additionally, Bob enjoys wood working, riding bikes and traveling the world with Jan. Bob Stoffels can be reached at 727.867.5378 or emailed at: stoffels@juno.com.

Carl Potter, CSP, CMC and Deb Potter, PhD, CMC work with organizations that target a zero-injury workplace so everyone can go home to their families every day without injury. As advocates of a zero-injury workplace, they are speakers, authors and consultants to industry. For information about their Simply Seamless Safety SM Services, contact them at Potter and Associates International, Inc. 800.259.6209 or visit www.SimplySeamlessSafety.com.