Video Archive

Video recordings of past events are now available on our YouTube channel here.

How I Got Here and What I’ve Learned Along the Way

Aloft Hotel 3743 Hull Road, Gainesville, Florida

May 8th from 11:30 pm - 1:00 pm Presenter Bio Kay Abbitt, Alachua County School Board Kay Abbitt is currently representing District 5 on the Alachua County School Board. She taught in Alachua County schools for 10 years. She started a company that provided federally funded free tutoring to students in Florida and North Carolina…

The Winner of the Brechner Center’s Freedom of Information Award for 2023

Aloft Hotel 3743 Hull Road, Gainesville, Florida

April 10th at 11:30 - 1:00 pm Speaker Bio: Our eighth forum talk of this year will take place Monday, April 10th. The speaker(s) will be one or both of the winners of this year's Brechner Center for Freedom of Information Award winner. Format This year our meetings will resume being in person (with lunch).…

Student Speech Rights and Social Media: The Case of the Cursing Cheerleader

Aloft Hotel 3743 Hull Road, Gainesville, Florida

March 13th from 11:30 pm - 1:00 pm Presenter Bios Clay Calvert, UF Professor of Law & Brechner Eminent Scholar Emeritus Clay Calvert is Professor Emeritus at the University of Florida where until January 2023 he held a joint appointment as Professor of Law at the Fredric G. Levin College of Law and Brechner Eminent…

Is America ready for Voting Reform? The benefits of Ranked Choice Voting, and why it’s being adopted around the nation.

Aloft Hotel 3743 Hull Road, Gainesville, Florida

Feb. 13th from 11:30 pm - 1:00 pm Rank My Vote Florida was founded in 2019 by Florida citizens who were working on ranked choice voting in their own cities in Florida. The focus of Rank My Vote Florida is the statewide passage of RCV, while at the same time assisting efforts to get RCV…

Reflections from The Gainesville Sun’s last executive editor

Aloft Hotel 3743 Hull Road, Gainesville, Florida

Jan. 9th from 11:30 pm - 1:00 pm Douglas Ray will discuss the rise and fall of community newspapers and consider the path forward for the Fourth Estate. His career tracked the corporate consolidation of print journalism, saw its salad days and secured a Pulitzer Prize for breaking news coverage, but also the great unwinding.…

Where Nature and Culture Meet

Aloft Hotel 3743 Hull Road, Gainesville, Florida

Dec 12th from 11:30 pm - 1:00 pm Robert "Hutch" Hutchinson will weave together several tales about how Alachua County became the place "Where Nature and Culture Meet", providing insight into the people and events that have forever shaped the landscape of our community. Speaker Bio: Robert "Hutch" Hutchinson served as an Alachua County Commissioner…

Medical Aid in Dying: A Global Perspective

Aloft Hotel 3743 Hull Road, Gainesville, Florida

Nov 14th from 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm Speaker Bio: Barbara Toeppen-Sprigg, MD, MPH, is a retired Family and Preventive Medicine physician. Her practice in Ohio included direct patient care, residency teaching, and organizational responsibilities. She has been teaching on End-of-Life Choice for the last seven years, primarily in Ocala, Florida. Her other interests include…

Sweetwater Creek Loop: Reclaim a creek, connect neighborhoods

Aloft Hotel 3743 Hull Road, Gainesville, Florida

Oct 10th from 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm Speaker Bio: Ron Cunningham is a career newspaper journalist who has been writing about Florida for half a century. A 1975 graduate of the University of Florida, he began his journalism career as a beat reporter for the Ft. Lauderdale Sun Sentinel. In 1976 he became higher…

Public Defenders: who we are, what we do, and why we are important

Aloft Hotel 3743 Hull Road, Gainesville, Florida

Sept 12th from 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm Speaker Bio: Stacy Scott holds a BA from the University of Florida and a J.D. with honors from the University of Florida College of Law. She has worked in the private sector as a criminal defense attorney for over 20 years, litigating criminal cases ranging from misdemeanors…

Saving Florida’s Springs – Time is Running Out

Online (ZOOM)

May 9th from 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm Speaker Bio: Our ninth and last forum talk of this year will take place next Monday, May 9th at Noon via Zoom (see links below). The speaker will be Dr. Robert L. Knight, Director of the Howard T. Odum Florida Springs Institute speaking on "Saving Florida’s Springs…