Barbara Petersen is a national expert on open-government issues. She’s been president of the First Amendment Foundation since 1995, when it was started by a group of media organizations and she became its sole employee. The foundation promotes the public’s constitutional right to oversee its government through the state’s government-in-the-sunshine and public-records laws. Before taking the job, Petersen had been a staff attorney for the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Information Technology Resources.
Petersen also sits on the boards of the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting and the National Freedom of Information Coalition. She served as chair of Florida’s Commission on Open Government Reform, and in 2013, Florida Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, appointed her to the User Experience Task Force, which reviewed the state’s transparency websites and made recommendations for improvement.
