column until 1998. During this same period he was a visiting professor in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He taught a course on Race and New Media and conducted research, which was featured in John Barber’s book, The Information Society and the Black Community. He returned to the City of Atlanta in 1998 in the position of Director of Communications where he was responsible for all communications and marketing for the city. During his tenure as Director of Communications, he negotiated an 8 million dollar deal with AT&T and Media One to fund a citywide program designed to bridge the digital divide. The City Cyber Program included multiple sites such as recreation centers, libraries, one historical black college, and a cyber bus that brought mobile broadband technology directly to local communities. In 2003, the cyber bus became the operations center for a forum sponsored for U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein. In 2005, Simama left government and returned to education as Vice President for Community Development and External Affairs and Executive Assistant to the President at Benedict College in Columbia, South Carolina. There Simama continued his work in community technology, sponsoring four annual summits on Broadband in Cities and Towns. The summits attracted participants from around the country and focused on the idea of expanding broadband to unserved and under-served communities. In June 2009, Simama returned to Atlanta and began working as the Deputy Chief Operating Officer of Development for DeKalb County and Chief of Staff, the third largest county in Georgia. where he remained until August, 2012. A report of investigation by the DeKalb District Attorney's Office into the county's administration produced indictments against county CEO Burrell Ellis, and accused Simama, as chief of staff under Ellis, of manipulating committees that award contracts. The report recommended a criminal investigation into possible bid-rigging. Simama faced possible appeals or ongoing litigation as a result of the probe. no charges were filed against Simama. Simama served as president of Georgia Piedmont Technical College (GPTC) starting 2012. He was the first black president for the college that had an 78% black student population. In 2018, the college was investigated by the U.S. Department of Education regarding management of its finances, placing the college under "Heightened Cash Monitoring 2" status. As a result of the investigation, GPTC dismissed Simama and placed