Speakers Bureau
The Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council is an all-volunteer organization devoted to protecting access to public meetings and records. Though our resources are limited, we try to do as much public outreach as possible. The following council members are available for speaking engagements, as their schedules permit.
Lueders has been a newspaper reporter and editor for more than 25 years and a member of the council since 1990. He became president in October 2004. Though not an expert in open government law, he can articulate the ideal of maximum openness in government, for the benefit of the public officials as well as the public.
Westerberg, council vice president since April 2008, is an attorney with the Madison law firm of McGillivray, Westerberg & Bender. She has represented clients challenging denials of access to meetings and records, and written about the laws governing open government and economic development.
Bob Drechsel
drechsel@facstaff.wisc.edu
(608)263-3394
Drechsel, council treasurer since 2004, is a professor of journalism at the UW-Madison, teaching courses in newspaper reporting and the law of mass communication. He has an excellent perspective on the role of outside advocacy in ensuring maximum openness, and can offer basic working knowledge of the use of open records and meetings laws.
Hall, council secretary, is a longtime investigative reporter and openness advocate. She can speak especially to the issue of what kinds of information journalists want and why they want it, as well as how reporters tend to view the obligations of public officials under the state’s openness laws.
Bob Dreps
Wisconsin FOIC member and legal advisor
rdreps@gklaw.com
(608) 257-3911
Dreps, an attorney with the Madison law firm of Godfrey and Kahn, has advised the council on issues of law since 1985. He has represented media organizations and others in litigation over access to public information and is an expert on the laws governing access to public records and meetings.