Freedom to Read Foundation announces 2005 Board of Trustees election winners
Contact: Judith Krug
Director, Office for Intellectual Freedom
312-280-4222
ftrf@ala.org
For Immediate Release
May 19, 2005
Freedom to Read Foundation announces 2005 Board of Trustees election winners
CHICAGO -- The Freedom to Read Foundation (FTRF) is pleased to announce the winners of its 2005 Board of Trustees election. Six trustees were elected to two-year terms in the April election: John W. Berry, Therese Bigelow, Jonathan Bloom, Anne Heanue, James G. Neal, and Judith Platt. Of these trustees, Berry, Bloom, and Heanue were re-elected; Bigelow and Neal are newly elected; and Platt previously served as a trustee.
These trustees will join Francis J. Buckley, Jr. (Arlington, Va.), Chris Finan (New York), Joel Hirschhorn (Coral Gables, Fla.), Deborah Jacobs (Seattle), and Candace Morgan (Portland, Ore.) on the board. Biographical information on the election winners follows:
John W. Berry (River Forest, Ill.), the current president of the Freedom to Read Foundation, serves as the Executive Director of NILRC: Network of Illinois Learning Resources in Community College, one of the oldest community college learning resources cooperatives in the nation. He is a past president of the American Library Association.
Therese Bigelow (Kansas City, Mo.) is Deputy Director of Branch Services at the Kansas City, Mo., Public Library. She currently serves as chair of the Metropolitan Libraries Committee of the Public Library Association and is an ALA Councilor.
Jonathan Bloom (New York) specializes in media and First Amendment, intellectual property, and art law with Weil, Gotshal & Manges. As counsel to the Freedom to Read Committee of the Association of American Publishers, he has authored several briefs in First Amendment cases that the Freedom to Read Foundation also has joined.
Anne Heanue (Alexandria, Va.) is a former lobbyist for the American Library Association's Washington Office. Since retiring from ALA, she has served on the ALA Committee on Legislation's Task Force on Privacy.
James G. Neal (New York) is the Vice President for Information Services and University Librarian at Columbia University. He has served on the board of the Association of Research Libraries and the Executive Board of ALA.
Judith Platt (Washington, D.C.) is Director, Freedom to Read & Communications and Public Affairs, at the Association of American Publishers (AAP). As such, she is responsible for articulating AAP's position on important free speech issues as laid down in the Freedom to Read Statement over 50 years ago.
The Freedom to Read Foundation was founded in 1969 to promote and defend the right of individuals to freely express ideas and to access information in libraries and elsewhere. FTRF fulfills its mission through the disbursement of grants to individuals and groups, primarily for the purpose of aiding them in litigation, and through direct participation in litigation dealing with freedom of speech and of the press.
