Jordana Barton-Garcia | Director, Rio Grande Valley Broadband Coalition
Connect Humanity

Jordana is Director of Connect Humanity’s Texas Rio Grande Valley (RGV) Broadband Coalition — a cross-sector network of local partners working to create the sustainable digital ecosystem South Texas needs for an inclusive and vibrant economic future. Her work is dedicated to supporting low-income and rural communities to fully participate in the digital economy in a way that promotes economic development, health equity, workforce development, educational equity, access to financial services, and entrepreneurship. In 2025 the Coalition released the RGV Broadband and Digital Opportunity Plan and is working to fund the five pillars. To start, they were awarded a $4.8 million grant from Texas to build the broadband workforce in the RGV. Jordana previously served as Vice President of Community Investments at Methodist Healthcare Ministries, where she introduced a new area of grantmaking for digital inclusion and health equity. In its first two years, MHM contributed approximately $25 million (now over $50 million) to organizations in South Texas to close the digital divide. Prior to MHM, Jordana served as Senior Advisor for the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, where she supported the Federal Reserve System’s economic growth objectives and the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). As a community development officer, her work included economic research, community development finance and philanthropy, as well as training banks and Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs). She led the incorporation of digital inclusion into the CRA and published, Closing the Digital Divide: A Framework for Meeting CRA Obligations. She worked directly with several South Texas communities to invest in broadband infrastructure and digital opportunity programs that have become models for the country. Her career at the Federal Reserve was preceded by distinguished service in community development banking and finance at Capital One Bank, and as a nonprofit leader in the expansion of microfinance in the US with LIFT Fund (formerly Accion Texas). Jordana has written numerous publications which have contributed to the fields of community development and digital inclusion. Jordana serves on the Statewide Working Group of the Texas Broadband Development Office. In 2025, she was named among the 7 Women Transforming the Broadband Industry and Driving Digital Inclusion by CNET. In 2024, she was appointed Media Democracy Fund Unicorn Fellow for her advocacy in community broadband. In 2018, she received the “Federal Broadband Policy Champion Award” from the Coalition for Local Internet Choice and the “Community Broadband Hero Award” from the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors. In 2020, she was named, “Salud Hero” (health hero) by Salud America, a program of UT Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and was inducted into the San Antonio Women’s Hall of Fame. Jordana grew up in the rural South Texas community of Benavides. She holds an MPA from Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government. Select Publications "Data Centers are Coming. Here's How Communities Can Negotiate for Local Benefit," Jordana Barton-Garcia, February 2026, https://connecthumanity.fund/data-centers-are-coming-heres-how-communities-can-negotiate-for-local-benefit/   Rio Grande Valley Broadband and Digital Opportunity Plan, Jordana Barton-Garcia, 2025, https://connecthumanity.fund/rio-grande-valley-broadband-digital-opportunity-plan/ “What does the Community Reinvestment Act Mean for Digital Equity,” by Jordana Barton-Garcia, 2023, https://connecthumanity.fund/what-does-the-updated-community-reinvestment-act-mean-for-digital-equity/ “South Texas Colonia Students Step Up as Tech Connectors,” by Calum Cameron and Jordana Barton-Garcia, 2024, https://connecthumanity.fund/south-texas-colonia-students-step-up-as-tech-connectors/ "Is Data the New Oil: Why South Texas Should Pay Attention to this Well-Worn Cliché,” by Jordana Barton-Garcia, 2023, https://connecthumanity.fund/is-data-the-new-oil-why-south-texas-should-pay-attention-to-this-well-worn-tech-cliche/ “Advance Digital Equity Today or Usher In A Future of Egregious Economic Inequality,” by Jordana Barton-Garcia, 2023, https://connecthumanity.fund/advance-digital-equity-today-or-usher-in-a-future-of-egregious-economic-inequality/ Joint letter: A strengthened Community Reinvestment Act must advance digital equity, Jordana Barton-Garcia, Senior Policy Fellow, Connect Humanity (2022). Brownsville: Planning the Infrastructure of the Digital Economy, by Jordana Barton, Architectural League of New York, (2021). Preparing Workers for the Expanding Digital Economy, by Jordana Barton, a chapter in Investing in America’s Workforce: Improving Outcomes for Workers and Employers, a book series of the Federal Reserve System, Rutgers University, the University of Texas at Austin, and the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research (2018). “Telehealth Along the Texas-Mexico Border,” by Jordana Barton. Texas Tech Health Sciences Center, Rural Health Quarterly, (2018), http://ruralhealthquarterly.com/home/2018/06/23/telehealth-along-the-texas-mexico-border/  “Promising Telehealth Initiatives Highlight the Need to Close the Digital Divide,” by Jordana Barton. Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas (2018), https://www.dallasfed.org/cd/pubs/telehealth.aspx “Closing the Digital Divide: A Framework for Meeting CRA Obligations,” by Jordana Barton. Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas (2016), https://www.dallasfed.org/cd/pubs/digitaldivide.aspx “Las Colonias in the 21st Century: Progress Along the Texas-Mexico Border,” by Jordana Barton, et. al. (2015), Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, https://www.dallasfed.org/assets/documents/cd/pubs/lascolonias.pdf, & micro-website, www.dallasfed.org/~/media/microsites/cd/colonias/index.html