Sept 11th from 11:30 pm - 1:00 pm Presenter Bio Janet Coats, Managing Director of the Consortium of Trust in Media and Technology Ms. Coats has been at the forefront of the seismic shifts in journalism and information culture over the last 25 years. She’s led large multimedia news organizations, done groundbreaking work in civic…

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…

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).…

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…

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…

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.…

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…

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…

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…

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…