Mario Morino, chairman of the Potomac KnowledgeWay Project, announced today that April Young will become the Project's first executive director on April 1, 1996. Morino also announced that he will continue as chairman of the board of directors for another year, and that Clair Sassin will join the Project as director of communications.

"We consider April's acceptance of this position quite a coup for the Project," said Morino. "April has been instrumental in the formation of the Potomac KnowledgeWay Project, and her background, broad knowledge of the region and interest in education make her a natural for the job. April will be responsible for the organization's day-to-day operations, and we will work closely together to achieve the project's goals."

The Potomac KnowledgeWay Project is striving to promote understanding of the transformation of our society through the communications revolution, to encourage the community to adopt the changes and leverage the revolution's potential to improve the economic and social health of the Potomac region. The Potomac KnowledgeWay Project's four strategic initiatives include engaging the community, educating the workforce, cultivating networked entrepreneurs and advancing the regional information infrastructure.

The KnowledgeWay's effort to engage the community is already under way through initiatives designed to promote individual, business and institutional acceptance of the changes occurring due to the advent of networked interactive communication. Part of the Project's networking infrastructure is also in place, through Crossroads, its World Wide Web site. Crossroads is intended to provide the link to a regional information infrastructure and to support all the Project's initiatives.

"In addition to the community and networking infrastructure initiatives that are already in place, we are moving forward aggressively to develop a plan for the entrepreneurship and workforce education components of the Project," said Young. "Within the next month, we expect to begin implementing several new programs that address the needs we have identified and our plans for implementing them."

Formed in June 1995, the Potomac KnowledgeWay Project has quickly emerged as a powerful and positive force in the Potomac region. It is committed to establishing the Potomac region as one that has embraced the communications revolution and prospered from it by educating the community and workforce about the enormous opportunities the communications revolution represents.