FOIA

I have over 12 years of experience using the Freedom of Information Act as both a member of a news/media organization, as well as a part of an educational institution conducting public interest research. I have filed over 1,500 requests, and 200 appeal letters, and have been involved in supporting 3 FOIA litigation cases.

I published an open-access guide How to FOIA: A Guide to Filing Freedom of Information Act Requests, available at https://uw.pressbooks.pub/howtofoia/ .

I have trained over 50 interns on how to use the FOIA, and created the FOIA internship training program at the University of Washington Center for Human Rights (UWCHR). I also trained the first interns and provided mentorship on starting the UWCHR’s FOIA program.

I can provide a variety of forms of support for public interest FOIA projects. I can:

• Provide guidance on starting a FOIA program or project
• Conduct preliminary FOIA research
• Provide specific FOIA strategy on an existing projects
• Conduct trainings for individuals and groups on the basics of how to file FOIAs
• Draft and edit drafts of FOIA requests

Please see my talk at the UW Libraries in October 2020 about my FOIA work, and my guidebook How to FOIA (my talk starts at 20:06):

Please contact me below if you would like further information about my consultation work.