Thomas S. Blanton is Executive Director of the National Security Archive at George Washington University, and a leading advocate of government transparency and disclosure. Founded in 1985 by journalists and scholars, the National Security Archive is a distinguished research and advocacy organization that defends and expands public access to government information. In 2000, the Archive won U.S. journalism's George Polk Award for “piercing self-serving veils of government secrecy, guiding journalists in search for the truth, and informing us all.”
John S. Bracken oversees the Knight News Challenge, Knight’s prototype fund, and the foundation's other journalism and technology investments. He has more then 12 years of experience as a philanthropic investor in digital media, media policy, and innovation, having previously worked at the Ford Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation. He was named to Crain’s Tech 50 for 2013 and was a 2009 fellow of Leadership Greater Chicago. He serves on the board of the Illinois Humanities Council. He writes @jsb and johnbracken.net.
Susan Bokern is Vice President, Information Solutions, ProQuest. She works in product management for ProQuest Government databases. Before joining ProQuest, Bokern held senior leadership positions at NewsBank; New Century Network (NCN), an online consortia of major newspapers; and at Gannett and USA TODAY. She began her career at the U.S. Department of Commerce working for two Deputy Assistant Secretaries.
Mary M. Case is University Librarian and Dean of Libraries at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Case oversees operations of the Richard J. Daley Library and Library of the Health Sciences in Chicago. Prior to joining UIC in July 2004, Case was Director of the Office of Scholarly Communication of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) in Washington, D.C. At ARL, Ms. Case was responsible for guiding the activities of the association related to the production, dissemination, use, and preservation of scholarly information and helped develop SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition).
Matthew J. Connelly is Professor of History at Columbia University, specializing in international and global history, and chair of Columbia’s Seminar on “Big Data and Digital Scholarship.” His research on declassification policies is profiled in “The Ghost Files” in a recent issue of Columbia magazine. He has also published commentary on international affairs in The Atlantic Monthly, The Economist, and The National Interest.
Robert Dessau is CEO of voxgox. First launched for subscription access in January 2014, voxgov is a unique “discovery platform” which aggregates a broad range of official and ephemeral information resources issued by individual representatives and organizations from all branches of the U.S. Federal Government, and links that content to publicly accessible government documentation.
James A. Jacobs is Data Services Librarian Emeritus, University of California San Diego. He is one of the co-creators of FreeGovInfo.info, and is a librarian, teacher, trainer, researcher, writer, and consultant. Jacobs is technical advisor to CRL’s Certification Advisory Panel.
William A. Mayer was named Executive for Research Services for the National Archives and Records Administration in 2012. He has more than 20 years of experience working in dynamic research environments, including having served as the University Librarian at American University in Washington, D.C. From 2001 to 2007, he was the Associate University Librarian for Information Technology and Technical Services at George Washington University.
Cecilia Muir is currently serving as the first Chief Operating Officer at Library and Archives Canada, a position created in 2012. She is responsible for all LAC operations spanning acquisitions, to preservation, to access of published and archival material from both government and private sources. She has held senior positions in social policy, program delivery, and operations in a variety of federal departments. Before joining Library and Archives Canada in 2010 as Assistant Deputy Minister, Resource Discovery Sector, Cecilia was Assistant Secretary to Cabinet at the Privy Council Office.
Robert Lee is Director of Online Publishing and Strategic Partnerships, East View Information Service. He oversees development of over fifty aggregated databases and data acquisitions focusing on government, military, and strategic information, with particular emphasis on Russia and the former USSR, China, North Korea, and the Middle East. He was formerly Director of Publishing at ProQuest Information and Learning.
Ingrid Parent is University Librarian at the University of British Columbia. She was formerly Assistant Deputy Minister for Documentary Heritage at Library and Archives Canada (LAC), responsible for the development, description, and preservation of Canada’s documentary heritage. She served as President of IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations) during 2011-2012.
R. Eric Petersen is Specialist in American National Government, in the Congressional Research Service. He is the author, with Jennifer E. Manning and Christina M. Bailey of the March 2012 report, The Federal Depository Library Program: Issues for the Congress.
Brent Roe is Executive Director, Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL). At CARL he manages advocacy activities on such themes as copyright, open access, federal research support, broadband access, research data management, and documentary heritage digitization.
Paul M. Wester, Jr. was named as the first Chief Records Officer for the U.S. Government in March, 2011. He leads records management throughout the Federal Government, with an emphasis on electronic records. He is responsible for issuing Federal records management policy and guidance; liaisoning with Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the U.S. Congress, the U.S. Government CIO Council, and other stakeholders on records management issues; and serving as an ombudsman to ensure that NARA and the agencies it serves meet their statutory mandates and records management requirements.
