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Edwin Bender | James G. Blaine | Rick Blum | James Brady | Bill F. Chamberlin | Lucy Dalglish | Charles N. Davis | Michele Earl-Hubbard | Eric J. Ellman | Maria J.K. Everett | Meredith Fuchs | Debra Gersh Hernandez | Ted Gup | Harry Hammitt | Teri Henning | Adrian Holovaty | Mal Leary | Toni Locy | Hollie Manheimer | Daniel J. Metcalfe | David Moore | Jan Murphy | Mitchell W. Pearlman | Hyde Post | Tim Potts | Kathleen Richardson | Ari Schwartz | Susan Schwartz | Joey Senat | Robert Ellis Smith | Craig J. Staudenmaier | Chip Stewart | Charles D. Tobin | Pete Weitzel Edwin Bender
Executive Director of the National Institute on Money in State Politics Edwin Bender, a former journalist who played a key role in winning an open meetings case in Montana, has spent the past 15 years breaking down barriers to public campaign-finance information at the state level. He's authored numerous reports that link campaign finances to state policy and issues, and in 1999 was a co-founder of the National Institute on Money in State Politics. Bender seeks creative partnerships with journalists, reporters, bloggers, academic researchers, educators, online data providers, public-interest groups and government officials. He is a 1982 graduate of the University of Montana School of Journalism, and worked at newspapers in Montana, Alaska and Washington before returning to Montana. Participating in the panel FOI 2.0: Wikis and podcasts and blogs, oh my! at 2:00 p.m. Friday. |
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James G. Blaine Editor of passopenrecords.org James G. Blaine is a writer, teacher and consultant to non-profit organizations, whose work has focused primarily on social and environmental issues. He is editor ofpassopenrecords.org, a blog sponsored by the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association, aimed at bringing open-records reform to the state. He founded and published The Kennett Paper, which was named Pennsylvania's weekly Newspaper of the Year in 1997, 1998 & 1999; and he subsequently published eight weeklies in southeastern Pa. In 1999-2000 he served as president of PNA. He is currently a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania. He served three years in the U.S. Army and was honorably discharged as a Staff Sergeant. He holds a BA from Harvard College and an MA and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. He ran unsuccessfully for Congress from Pa.'s 16th District in 1996. Participating in the panel FOI 2.0: Wikis and podcasts and blogs, oh my! at 2:00 p.m. Friday. |
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Rick Blum Coordinator of the Sunshine in Government Initiative Rick has spent nearly a decade in Washington advocating for the public's right to know. Prior to joining the Sunshine in Government Initiative in April 2006, Rick served as founding director of OpenTheGovernment.org, a broad-based open government coalition. He also testified before Congress on EPA's science program, researched conflicts of interest on federal advisory committees, and pushed the federal government to strengthen public access to environmental information. Rick holds a Master's Degree from Indiana University, where his studies focused on democratization efforts in Russia, and a Bachelor's degree from the University of California, Berkeley. Participating in the panel Beltway Update at 2:00 p.m. Saturday. |
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James Brady Executive Editor & Vice President of Washington Post.com Jim Brady has led washingtonpost.com to numerous awards and accolades since being named executive editor of the site in November 2004. Under his leadership, washingtonpost.com has been focused on combining the world-class journalism of The Washington Post with the endless possibilities of the online medium. Brady began his online journalism career at washingtonpost.com in April 1995, when he came from the newspaper to serve as sports editor for The Post's online site, then located on a dial-up network called Interchange. After The Post decided to abandon that effort, Brady helped built and launch washingtonpost.com in June 1996. In 1999, Brady moved to America Online, where he spent more than four years, serving as Group Programming Director, News and Sports; Executive Director, Editorial Operations; and Vice President, Production & Operations. During his time at AOL, Brady was in charge of the service's coverage of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the 2000 presidential election. Prior to his first stint at washingtonpost.com, Brady was a sportswriter at The Washington Post from 1987 to 1995. Participating in the panel Sunshine Week at 10:30 a.m. Saturday. |
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Bill F. Chamberlin Director of the Marion Brechner Citizen Access Project Bill Chamberlin has been the Joseph L. Brechner Eminent Scholar for Freedom of Information at the College of Journalism and Communications of the University of Florida since 1987. He now serves as Director of the Marion Brechner Citizen Access Project. He also is an affiliate professor of the UF College of Law. Chamberlin frequently has spoken to public and media groups about access to government information, the First Amendment, freedom of information, regulation of the electronic media, and libel. Participating in the panel My state is worse than your state—or is it? at 9:00 a.m. Saturday. Bill F. Chamberlin is awarded with induction into The Open Government Hall of Fame.. |
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Lucy Dalglish Executive Director, The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press Prior to assuming the position of Executive Director in January 2000, Dalglish was a media lawyer for almost five years in the trial department of the Minneapolis law firm of Dorsey & Whitney LLP. From 1980-93, Dalglish was a reporter and editor at the St. Paul Pioneer Press. She was awarded the Wells Memorial Key, the highest honor bestowed by the Society of Professional Journalists, in 1995 for her work as Chairman of SPJ's national Freedom of Information Committee from 1992-95 and for her service as a national board member from 1988-91. She also was named to the inaugural class of the National Freedom of Information Act Hall of Fame in 1996. Dalglish earned a juris doctor degree from Vanderbilt University Law School in 1995; a master of studies in law degree from Yale Law School in 1988; and a bachelor of arts in journalism from the University of North Dakota in 1980. Moderating the panel Beltway Update at 2:00 p.m. Saturday. |
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Charles N. Davis Executive Director, National Freedom of Information Coalition Charles N. Davis worked for nearly ten years as a journalist after his graduation from North Georgia College in 1986, working for newspapers, magazines and a news service in Georgia, Florida and Ireland. He completed a master's degree from the University of Georgia's Henry W. Grady School of Journalism and Mass Communication and to earn a doctorate in mass communication from the University of Florida in 1995. As a member of the Missouri School of Journalism faculty since 1999, he has continued to write for business and legal publications while conducting scholarly research on access to governmental information and new media law, including jurisdictional issues, intellectual property and on-line libel. His first edited book, Access Denied: Freedom of Information in the Information Age, was published in 2001. Davis has earned a Sunshine Award from the Society of Professional Journalists for his work in furthering freedom of information. Participating in the panel My state is worse than your state—or is it? at 9:00 a.m. Saturday. |
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Michele Earl-Hubbard Past President, Washington Coalition for Open Government Michele Earl-Hubbard is principal and media law attorney at Allied Law Group LLC in Seattle, Washington. She is a frequent presenter at seminars and CLEs on Washington's open government laws, and a contributing author and editor of ACCESS (published by the Society of Professional Journalists). She was a founding member and former president of the Washington Coalition for Open Government. Ms. Earl-Hubbard has recently been named as the Washington State Freedom of Information Delegate for the Society of Professional Journalists. She is a co-author of the Washington Chapter of Tapping Official Secrets, published by The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. Participating in the panel Coalition Care and Feeding at 9:00 a.m. Friday. |
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Eric J. Ellman Vice President and Counsel for State Government and Federal Regulatory Affairs for the Consumer Data Industry Association (CDIA) Eric J. Ellman serves as Vice President and Counsel for State Government and Federal Regulatory Affairs for the Consumer Data Industry Association (CDIA). Founded in 1906, the Consumer Data Industry Association (CDIA). CDIA is the international trade association that represents more than 400 consumer data companies — the nationÕs leading institutions in credit reporting, mortgage reporting, check verification, fraud prevention, risk management, employment reporting, tenant screening and collection services. A native New Yorker, Eric has been in and around public service most of his life. In 1989 he became the youngest elected official in Maryland when he was elected to the Friendship Heights Village Council, and he went on to serve four terms on that council. Eric made an unsuccessful run for the Maryland state legislature in 1994. He has a B.S. from American University in Washington, DC and a law degree from the University of Baltimore; he is a member of the bar in Maryland and Pennsylvania. Participating in the panel Identity Theft at 3:30 p.m. Saturday. |
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Maria J.K. Everett Executive Director of the Virginia Freedom of Information Advisory Council Maria J.K. Everett is the executive director of the Virginia Freedom of Information Advisory Council, a legislative agency, created in July 2000. Since its inception, the FOIA Council has rendered more than 9,000 informal opinions and more than 180 written opinions on the application/interpretation of the Freedom of Information Act. Ms. Everett, a senior attorney with the Division of Legislative Services, also serves as counsel to the House Committee on General Laws, a position she has held since 1990. She earned a B.S. degree from Virginia Tech and a J.D. degree from the George Mason University School of Law. Participating in the panel Building the Perfect Ombudsman's Office at 3:30 p.m. Friday. |
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Meredith Fuchs General Counsel of the National Security Archive Meredith Fuchs serves as the General Counsel to the non-governmental National Security Archive at George Washington University. At the Archive, she oversees Freedom of Information Act and anti-secrecy litigation, advocates for open government, and frequently lectures on access to government information. She has supervised six government-wide audits of federal agency FOIA performance. Previously she was a Partner at the Washington, D.C. law firm Wiley Rein & Fielding LLP. Ms. Fuchs served as a law clerk to the Honorable Patricia M. Wald, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and to the Honorable Paul L. Friedman, U. S. District Court for the District of Columbia. She received her J.D. from the New York University School of Law and her B.Sc. from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Participating in the panel Beltway Update at 2:00 p.m. Saturday. |
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Debra Gersh Hernandez Coordinator of Sunshine Week Debra Gersh Hernandez joined ASNE's Sunshine Week initiative in November 2004 after nearly six years at the Newspaper Association of America, most recently as vice president of communications and editor of Presstime magazine, and prior to that as director of public relations. Gersh Hernandez spent nearly 12 years as a writer and editor for Editor & Publisher magazine, first as an associate editor in the magazine's New York City headquarters covering primarily advertising and marketing, but also general assignment stories. Later she became Washington editor covering the White House, the Supreme Court and Congress, as well as all federal agencies, the military, district courts, the U.S. Postal Service, and the local press, with an emphasis on the First Amendment, Freedom of Information and other issues of importance to newspapers. Participating in the panel Sunshine Week Roundtable at 10:30 a.m. Saturday. |
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Author, Professor of Journalism at Case Western Reserve University Ted Gup is the author of Nation of Secrets: The Threat to Democracy and the American Way of Life. A former investigative reporter for The Washington Post and Time magazine, he is also the author of the bestseller, The Book of Honor: Covert Lives And Classified Deaths At The CIA, and is the Shirley Wormser Professor of Journalism at Case Western Reserve University. Gup has taught at Georgetown, Johns Hopkins and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing as a Fulbright Scholar. He has been a Pulitzer finalist and recipient of numerous awards, including the George Polk Award, the Worth Bingham Prize, the Gerald Loeb Award, the National Conservation Achievement Award and the Book-of-the-Year Award from Investigative Reporters and Editors (for The Book of Honor). In 2007 he was inducted into the Cleveland Journalism Hall of Fame and received the George Orwell Award from the National Council of Teachers of English for "outstanding contributions to the critical analysis of public discourse." He has been a grantee of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, a Fellow of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics & Public Policy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, a Thomas J. Watson Fellow and a Guggenheim Fellow. Delivering the Keynote Address at noon on Friday. |
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Harry Hammitt Editor/publisher of Access Reports Harry Hammitt is editor/publisher of Access Reports, a biweekly newsletter on the Freedom of Information Act and open government laws and policies. He is the primary editor of Litigation Under the Federal Open Government Laws published by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC). He received his B.A. from the University of Michigan in 1975. He holds an M.A. in journalism from the University of Missouri and a J.D. from George Washington University Law School. He became editor of Access Reports in 1985 and became publisher in 1989. He has written and lectured extensively on access and privacy issues in both the United States and Canada. He is a past president of the American Society of Access Professionals and has conducted that organizationÕs annual seminar on business information issues for more than ten years. He was inducted into the FOI Hall of Fame at the Freedom Forum in Arlington, Virginia, in 2001. Participating in the panel Building the Perfect Ombudsman's Office at 3:30 p.m. Friday. |
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Teri Henning General Counsel for the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association Teri Henning is general counsel for the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association in Harrisburg. In that role, she advises Pennsylvania newspapers on legal and legislative matters, oversees the PNA's Legal Hotline, which receives more than 2,000 calls each year, and writes regularly on open records, open meetings, libel, and other issues of interest to Pennsylvania newspapers. She has been working to improve access to Pennsylvania government since joining the PNA in 2002, and in 2007, she testified multiple times at the state Capitol in support of legislative changes to the Right to Know law. Before joining the PNA, Ms. Henning worked in private practice and taught in the clinical programs at The Dickinson School of Law of the Pennsylvania State University. She is a graduate of Bucknell University and the Georgetown University Law Center. Participating in the panel FOI Reform Efforts: Rewriting your state's laws? at 10:30 a.m. Friday. |
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Adrian Holovaty Journalist and computer programmer, founder of EveryBlock Adrian Holovaty, a journalist and computer programmer, is founder of EveryBlock, a local news Web site funded by a grant from the Knight Foundation. He has developed award-winning Web applications for washingtonpost.com, Lawrence.com and LJWorld.com, and he is probably the best-known industry advocate for the burgeoning discipline of "journalism via computer programming." His 2005 project chicagocrime.org, one of the original Google Maps "mashups," was developed by reverse-engineering Google's map technology. He also co-created Django, an open-source development framework that makes it fast and easy for programmers to build database-driven Web sites. It is used by tens of thousands of people around the world. Adrian cowrote the Django Book, published in late 2007. He graduated from the Missouri School of Journalism in 2001 and lives with his wife in Chicago. For fun, he plays gypsy-jazz guitar and posts YouTube videos at youtube.com/user/adrianholovaty. Participating in the panel FOI 2.0: Wikis and podcasts and blogs, oh my! at 2:00 p.m. Friday. |
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Mal Leary President, Maine Freedom of Information Coalition Mal Leary has been a journalist throughout his life, working in both Washington D.C. and in Maine as both a reporter and editor. He has won numerous awards for his reporting, both in broadcast and in print and currently reports on state government issues in Maine on radio throughout the state and in several state newspapers. He owns and operates Capitol News Service located in the State House complex. Mal has been a long time member of the Society of Professional Journalists and the Association of Capitol Reporters and Editors. He is the SPJ Sunshine Chair in Maine and is currently the president of the Maine Freedom of Information Coalition and is a director of NFOIC. Mal is married with three grown children, several grandchildren and lives in Augusta in sight of the Capitol dome. Moderating the panel Coalition Care and Feeding at 9:00 a.m. Friday. |
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Shott Chair of Journalism at West Virginia University Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism Toni Locy has worked for the nation's biggest and best news organizations, covering beats ranging from the U.S. Supreme Court and the Mafia to state and city government. A 1981 graduate of West Virginia University's School of Journalism, she began her career at the former Pittsburgh Press. She also was a reporter at the Philadelphia Daily News, Boston Globe, Washington Post, U.S. News & World Report, USA Today and the Associated Press. Locy's specialty was covering federal courts and law enforcement. Editors at the Boston Globe nominated her for a Pulitzer Prize for a four-part series she reported and wrote on the Boston Police Department's inability to solve serious crime. She was one of three reporters at the Washington Post who wrote the first published story about the investigation of President Clinton's relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Locy also was a member of a national investigative team at U.S. News & World Report. At USA Today, she covered the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack and its aftermath, including the Bush administration's policies regarding terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and elsewhere. Read more about Toni Locy here. Delivering the Keynote Address at noon on Saturday. |
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Hollie Manheimer Executive Director, Georgia First Amendment Foundation Hollie Manheimer is the Executive Director of the Georgia First Amendment Foundation (GFAF), a grass roots non profit organization formed in 1994 to promote freedom of information in Georgia through education and advocacy. GFAF works through programs like today's, literature, amicus briefs, and other avenues to strengthen the access laws in Georgia. When not serving the foundation, Ms. Manheimer practices law at Stuckey & Manheimer, LLC and serves as a Pro Hac Vice Judge of the Recorders Court of Dekalb County. A cum laude graduate of Dartmouth College, Ms. Manheimer received her J.D. from Emory University School of Law and holds two masters' degrees: one in English from New York University and one in Communications from Georgia State University. Participating in the panel Coalition Care and Feeding at 9:00 a.m. Friday. |
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Daniel J. Metcalfe Executive Director of the Collaboration on Government Secrecy Dan Metcalfe joined the faculty of WCL in 2007 upon retiring from a career in government service that began at the Department of Justice in 1971. After a judicial clerkship and serving as a Justice Department trial attorney, he was appointed as a founding director of the Department's Office of Information and Privacy in 1981. For more than a quarter-century, he guided all federal agencies on the governmentwide administration of the Freedom of Information Act, supervised the defense of more than 500 FOIA and Privacy Act lawsuits in district and appellate courts, and met with representatives of nearly 100 nations and international governing bodies as they considered the development and implementation of their own government transparency laws. Participating in the panel Identity Theft at 3:30 p.m. Saturday. |
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David Moore Executive Director of Participatory Politics Foundation David Moore is the Executive Director of the Participatory Politics Foundation. PPF builds open-source web resources for civic engagement. PPF's flagship project is OpenCongress.org, a joint project with the Sunlight Foundation. OpenCongress combines official government data with news and blog coverage to give you the real story behind what's happening in Congress. Previously, David worked as a political activist and outreach coordinator for open-source software tools. David graduated from Brown University with degrees in English and Philosophy. He is based in Brooklyn. Participating in the panel FOI 2.0: Wikis and podcasts and blogs, oh my! at 2:00 p.m. Friday. |
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Jan Murphy Capitol Bureau Chief for The Patriot-News A graduate of Ball State University, Ms. Murphy covered school district and local governments for newspapers in Frankfort, Ind.; Carlisle, Pa.; and Doylestown, Pa., before coming to work at The Patriot-News. Her areas of coverage now include education policy and state government. In recent years, her reporting has taken on a more intense watchdog role to help people understand how state agencies are spending public funds. It was through this effort that led to two open records lawsuits that the newspaper ultimately won following lengthy court battles that went all the way to the state Supreme Court. Participating in the panel FOI Reform Efforts: Rewriting your state's laws? at 10:30 a.m. Friday. |
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Mitchell W. Pearlman Executive Director Emeritus, Connecticut FOI Commission Mitchell Pearlman is a government information consultant, attorney and educator. He was Executive Director and General Counsel of the Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission from 1975-2005 and now holds the title of Executive Director Emeritus of that organization. From July – December 2005, Mr. Pearlman also served as Interim Executive Director of Connecticut's newly established Office of State Ethics. In 2006, he was appointed to the Connecticut Governor's Commission on Judicial Reform. Mr. Pearlman is a director of the National Freedom of Information Coalition, the Connecticut Foundation for Open Government, the Connecticut Council on Freedom of Information, and Connecticut Legal Services (the state's large legal aid society), of which he is a past chairman. Moderating the panel Building the Perfect Ombudsman's Office at 3:30 p.m. Friday. |
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Hyde Post Director, NFOIC, Vice President, Internet Operations, Atlanta Journal-Constitution Hyde Post is vice president, internet for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and its web portfolio, including ajc.com and accessatlanta.com. He was one of the original developers of ajc.com in 1998. Prior to focusing full-time on the web, he served as assistant managing editor in charge of the daily Atlanta Constitution and also headed the Innovation Group, a cross-functional skunkworks for new product development. He served previously with the newspaper as a reporter, special projects editor and assistant managing editor for local news. Projects he edited or directed have garnered a number of awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting (bank redlining in Atlanta—1988) and the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting (bacterial resistance to antibiotics—1993). He currently serves as a board member for the non-profit National Freedom of Information Coalition, and he is president and founder of the Georgia First Amendment Foundation. Moderating the panel FOI 2.0: Wikis and podcasts and blogs, oh my! at 2:00 p.m. Friday. |
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Tim Potts Co-founder of Democracy Rising Pennsylvania Tim Potts is co-founder of Democracy Rising Pennsylvania, a government reform group founded in 2004, the year the state legislature caused public uproar by voting itself a pay raise in the middle of the night. The group was effective in getting the pay raise repealed, and continues to work encouraging citizen action for integrity and transparency in state government. He was honored as a "Citizen of the Year" for 2005 by The Philadelphia Inquirer, and earned the Public Service Achievement Award in 2006 from Common Cause/PA. Before becoming a government reform activist, he was director of the Pennsylvania School Reform Network, working to improve funding for public education. He spent 22 years as a senior adviser in the state's legislative and executive branches under both Republican and Democratic administrations, including the state House of Representatives and the state departments of Education, Public Welfare and Commerce.Ê Participating in the panel My state is worse than your state—or is it? at 9:00 a.m. Saturday. |
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Kathleen Richardson Director of the Drake School of Journalism and Mass Communication Kathleen Richardson is director of the Drake School of Journalism and Mass Communication in Des Moines, Iowa, where as an associate professor she also teaches reporting and writing and also media law and ethics. Prior to teaching, Richardson worked for 20 years as a news editor, copy desk chief and columnist at the Des Moines Register and the Des Moines Tribune. She also worked as a freelance book and magazine editor for Meredith Corp. She received her master's degree in journalism from Drake in 2001 and her law degree from the Drake Law School in 2002. She is a member of the Iowa bar. Richardson is also executive secretary of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council, a non-profit coalition of journalists, educators, attorneys, librarians and others that promotes open government and is headquartered in the Drake journalism school. Participating in the panel FOI Reform Efforts: Rewriting your state's laws? at 10:30 a.m. Friday. |
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Ari Schwartz Vice President and COO of the Center for Democracy and Technology Schwartz's work focuses on increasing individual control over personal and public information. He promotes privacy protections in the digital age and expanding access to government information via the Internet. He regularly testifies before Congress and Executive Branch Agencies on these issues. Schwartz also leads the Anti-Spyware Coalition (ASC) , anti-spyware software companies, academics, and public interest groups dedicated to defeating spyware. In 2006, Schwartz won the RSA award for Excellence in Public Policy for his work building the ASC and other efforts against spyware. He was also named one of the Top 5 influential IT security thinkers of 2007 by Secure Computing Magazine. Participating in the panel Identity Theft at 3:30 p.m. Saturday. |
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Susan Schwartz Staff Writer for the Press Enterprise Online
Susan Schwartz is the Project Sunshine chairperson for Pennsylvania for the Society of Professional Journalists, as well as the state coordinator for Sunshine Week through the Participating in the panel Sunshine Week Roundtable at 10:30 a.m. Saturday. |
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Joey Senat Associate Professor at the School of Journalism & Broadcasting at Oklahoma State University Dr. Joey Senat, an associate journalism professor at Oklahoma State University, served as the 2007 president of FOI Oklahoma Inc. The author of "Mass Communication Law in Oklahoma," Dr. Senat has spoken on the state's FOI laws at professional conferences and is quoted frequently on freedom of information and media law issues in the state. He received the 2007 Marian Opala First Amendment Award and the 2005 Oklahoma Society of Professional Journalists' First Amendment Award. Participating in the panel Coalition Care and Feeding at 9:00 a.m. Friday. |
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Robert Ellis Smith Publisher of Privacy Journal Smith is the author of Ben Franklin's Web Site: Privacy and Curiosity From Plymouth Rock to the Internet, the acclaimed 407-page account of privacy throughout American history. Second printing in 2004. His first book, Privacy: How to Protect What's Left of It, was nominated for the National Book Award in 1980. A graduate of Harvard College and Georgetown University Law Center, Smith was a daily news reporter, weekly newspaper editor, and then assistant director of civil rights in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services before starting Privacy Journal in 1974. He has taught at Harvard, Brown University, Emerson College, and the University of Maryland. Participating in the panel Identity Theft at 3:30 p.m. Saturday. |
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Craig J. Staudenmaier Managing Partner at Nauman Smith Shissler & Hall, LLP Mr. Staudenmaier is a partner in the Harrisburg law firm of Nauman Smith Shissler & Hall, LLP. His practice is concentrated in the areas of state and federal litigation and media law. He routinely represents the print and broadcast media, businesses and private individuals in public records and open meetings matters and subpoena of reporters, privacy and defamation claims. He has appeared before numerous trial courts and administrative agencies on such issues and has successfully argued public records issues before the Commonwealth and Supreme Courts of Pennsylvania, including as lead counsel for the media entities in the Penn State University/Paterno and PHEAA open records cases. As an experienced trial lawyer, he has tried numerous cases to verdict in favor of his clients in both the state and federal courts. He is also general counsel to the Pennsylvania Freedom of Information Coalition. Moderating the panel FOI Reform Efforts: Rewriting your state's laws? at 10:30 a.m. Friday. |
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Chip Stewart Assistant Professor at the Schieffer School of Journalism at Texas Christian University Chip Stewart is an assistant professor at the Schieffer School of Journalism at Texas Christian University, where he teaches courses in law and ethics. Chip got his J.D. from the University of Texas and is licensed to practice law in Texas and Missouri. In 2007, he earned an LL.M. in Dispute Resolution from the University of Missouri. He is also a Ph.D. candidate in journalism at the University of Missouri, and his dissertation will examine dispute resolution systems in freedom of information laws. Chip also serves as editor-in-chief of Dispute Resolution Magazine, a quarterly publication of the American Bar Association's Section of Dispute Resolution. Participating in the panel Building the Perfect Ombudsman's Office at 3:30 p.m. Friday. |
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Charles D. Tobin Partner, Holland & Knight LLP Charles D. Tobin chairs Holland & Knight's National Media Practice Team. A former journalist, Mr. Tobin has appeared in state and federal courts around the country, representing the clients in libel and privacy lawsuits at both the trial and appellate levels. He also conducts pre-publication review for newsrooms and provides advice on subpoenas, access, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), reporter's privilege, and all other First Amendment matters relating to the editorial content of newspapers and broadcasts. In addition, he counsels business clients on commercial disparagement, unfair competition and Lanham Act issues. Participating in the panel Beltway Update at 2:00 p.m. Saturday. |
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Pete Weitzel Coordinator of Coalition of Journalists for Open Government Pete Weitzel is a former managing editor of the Miami Herald, where he worked as a reporter and editor for nearly 40 years. He helped found the Florida First Amendment Foundation, serving as its president from 1985 to1995, and also helped launch the National Freedom of Information Coalition and served as its second president. He remains on the board of the Florida foundation. After retiring from The Herald in 1995, Weitzel taught at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies and then at the University of North Carolina journalism school and Duke Law School. He served as executive director of the North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence, an organization that investigates cases of possible wrongful conviction. In January 2004, he became coordinator for CJOG, an alliance of 30 journalism-related organizations working together on open government issues. Participating in the panel Sunshine Week Roundtable at 10:30 a.m. Saturday. |