Board of Directors Bios
- Thomas M. Susman, President. Mr. Susman has been involved in open government issues in the United States and around the world for more than 40 years. He counseled agencies on the newly-enacted FOIA in the late 1960s as a lawyer in the Department of Justice, staffed development and enactment of the 1974 FOIA Amendments as chief counsel to a Senate Subcommittee, and represented clients on government information-related matters during his 27 years as a partner at Ropes & Gray. Last year, Mr. Susman retired from the firm to become the Director of Governmental Affairs at the American Bar Association. He has written, taught, litigated, and counseled clients on access to government information, and last year was given the American Library Association's James Madison Award for his contribution to open government.
- Kathy Patterson, Vice-President. Ms. Patterson served 12 years as a member of the District of Columbia Council, where she chaired committees on education, public safety, and government operations. In January 2009, she became a Senior Officer with the Pew Center on the States, managing federal policy advocacy across the PCS children's campaigns—including home visiting and oral health for children and pre-kindergarteners. Before being elected to the Council, Ms. Patterson was Communications Director for the American Public Welfare Association. Before her tenure there, she spent 10 years working for the Kansas City Star, including six years in the Washington, D.C. bureau.
- Robert Vinson Brannum, Secretary. Mr. Brannum is an active volunteer with community organizations in the District, serving in leadership positions for the Ward Five 5th District Citizens’ Advisory Council, the DC Federation of Civic Associations, and the Ward 5 Education Council. Mr. Brannum has taught in the D.C. Public Schools and has worked on education legislation with the United Negro College Fund, the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education, and Texas College.
- James A. McLaughlin, Treasurer. Mr. McLaughlin is associate counsel at The Washington Post, where he advises the newsroom and business units of the newspaper on a wide range of issues. His media practice includes counseling and litigation relating to federal and state public records and open meetings laws. Before joining the Post in 2006, Mr. McLaughlin practiced complex civil and criminal litigation at two Washington, D.C. law firms. In 2003-04, Mr. McLaughlin was the McCormick Tribune Fellow at The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
- Robert S. Becker. Mr. Becker is an attorney in the District, focusing on media-related legal issues, including access to government information. From 1982 to 1991, Mr. Becker was Assistant Director for Publications and a staff attorney at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, where he advised lawyers and journalists, as well as writing several amicus curiae briefs on the media's right to access court proceedings and records. He was also a newspaper reporter and editor for 12 years. Mr. Becker is a member of the National FOI Committee of the Society of Professional Journalists, as well as a Board Member of the D.C. Professional Chapter of that organization and the chair of the D.C. Professional Chapter Freedom of Information Committee.
-
John Childers. Mr. Childers is the president and CEO of the Consortium of Universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area whose members are fourteen of the Washington area’s leading universities. Prior to joining the Consortium he served as Vice President for Communications and Government Relations for the College Board and headed its Washington Office. He also has extensive government experience. He served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Higher Education from 1989 to 1993 in the U.S. Department of Education, and spent almost 20 years in the U.S. Senate in various capacities including staff director of the Senate Rules Committee and chief of staff to Senator Charles H. Percy.
- Pete Weitzel. Mr. 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. Mr. Weitzel 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, Mr. Weitzel taught at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, the University of North Carolina School of Journalism and Mass Communication, 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 the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government, an alliance of 30 journalism-related organizations that has now been discontinued.
- Corinna Zarek. Prior to her recent appointment as staff attorney for the new federal Office of Government Information Services, Ms. Zarek served as the Freedom of Information Director at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, leading the Committee’s freedom of information and open government operations. She previously held the McCormick-Tribune Legal fellowship, where she worked on prior restraint and court access issues, and before that served as the Jack Nelson Legal Fellow, concentrating on freedom of information issues. Ms. Zarek teaches as an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism and American University's School of Communication. Before coming to Washington, she reported for The Des Moines Register, wrote for the Iowa Law Review and served as editor of her college newspaper, The Daily Iowan.