William Hea Joins Hanover Research

Mr. William Hea, former COTELCO research associate, has accepted a full-time position as Senior Research Analyst for Hanover Research in Washington, D.C., beginning 2 July 2012.

While Mr. Hea’s departure from COTELCO is bittersweet, his transition  to Hanover Research represents a key principle in COTELCO’s design: to ensure that our faculty, staff, and students are more enriched and prepared for the future than when they first began working with COTELCO.

During his tenure at COTELCO, Mr. Hea was the project lead for COTELCO’s Comparative Policy Project (CPP), which used a dataset of 112 transcripts from the 6th Annual Meeting of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) and the Provalis Research Suite software package to determine the key interests of public, private, and civil society stakeholders pertaining to Internet governance. CPP allowed Mr. Hea to gain pertinent experience in coding, as well as develop the critical analytical skills that it takes to analyze complex and copious amounts of large-scale unstructured text. Experience in “big-data” research, as it is otherwise known, is incredibly valuable in today’s age of the Internet.

When asked what value he saw in working with COTELCO, Mr. Hea said, “Our research in Internet governance does in months what a traditional research team would take years to do. Our research methods will revolutionize the way in which researchers approach their subjects, not only in the field of international communications, but across all fields.”

COTELCO is not the only institution that recognizes what Mr. Hea has to offer. In April 2012, American University bestowed the Charles H. Heimsath Award for Excellence in Style and Substance of Written Work in International Relations at the Undergraduate Level to Mr. Hea, who was also featured in the second issue of The COTELCO Connector.

Dr. Derrick L. Cogburn, COTELCO/IDPP Executive Director said, “I started COTELCO 13 years ago. Will has not only been one the most diligent researchers I have had the pleasure of working with, but he has also been one of the most dedicated to his work. While I am sad to lose him as a researcher, I am extremely proud to have had the pleasure of working with him in the last couple of years.”

While working with Hanover Research, Mr. Hea will also complete his Master’s degree in U.S. Foreign Policy from the School of International Service at American University.

To keep up with William Hea as he embarks on a new journey, follow him on Twitter.

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