Who We Are

                    Jordana Barton-García is a Senior Fellow with Connect Humanity. She is also Principal of the social enterprise, Barton-García Advisors. She serves healthcare organizations, local governments, non-profits, schools/universities, philanthropy, financial institutions, and internet service providers to strategically expand broadband infrastructure and digital inclusion in underserved rural and urban areas. Her work helps organizations and communities achieve full participation in the digital economy and promotes economic development, health equity, telehealth, workforce development, educational equity, access to financial services, and entrepreneurship. Her publications have contributed to the fields of community development and digital inclusion. 

She most recently served as Vice President of Community Investments at Methodist   Healthcare Ministries, where she oversaw the organization’s strategic grant-making aligned with the Social Determinants of Health. Her leadership was critical in ensuring Methodist Healthcare Ministries’ philanthropic and community development practices supported its commitment to health equity—reducing the inequities inherent  across South Texas so the least served have greater opportunities to reach their full potential. 

Jordana previously 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 financial institutions and federal banking regulators. Her focus areas included digital inclusion, telehealth, workforce development, financial education, affordable housing, and microenterprise and small business development. Her work at the Federal Reserve was preceded by a distinguished career in community development banking and finance at Capital One Bank, and as a nonprofit leader in the expansion of microfinance in the U.S. with Accion Texas, now LIFT Fund. 

Jordana serves on the Steering Committees for Digital Texas, the Digital Inclusion Alliance San Antonio, and on the Advisory Board of the Texas Health Improvement Network of the University of Texas System. In 2018, she received the “Federal 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 border community of Benavides. She holds an MPA from Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.

                    Catherine Barton is the Director of Operations for Barton-Garcia Advisors. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Public Administration, minor in Non-Profit Management, and Certificate of Legal Reasoning from the University of Texas San Antonio. She also holds a Certificate of Applied Animal Behavior from the University of Washington Seattle and is a Certified Professional Dog Trainer- Knowledge Assessed. 

Catherine's areas of specialty include digital equity and inclusion and animal welfare policy, canine behavior consulting, applied canine training using reward-based methods, and expert witness testimony. 

Catherine began her work on the digital divide as an intern with the Texas Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors where she contributed to a project called Digital Opportunity for the Rio Grande Valley (DO4RGV). She is versed in telecommunications and information services history, law and policy.

When Catherine isn't working on digital equity and inclusion, she enjoys donating her behavior and training expertise to local and out of state animal rescue groups in need of specialized behavior support and fostering for special needs dogs.