Executive Director of the Brechner Center

Sandra Chance is the Executive Director of the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information at the University of Florida. She is the McClatchy Professor in Freedom of Information and Professor of Journalism in the College of Journalism and Communications. She teaches media law at both the undergraduate and graduate level.

The Brechner Center for Freedom of Information specializes in providing information on access to government meetings and records to media organizations, private citizens, and elected officials. The Brechner Center also provides information on media law developments in Florida to organizations, individuals and institutions nationwide. Chance handles telephone queries about access to meetings and records and presents seminars nationally and around the state on access to governmental information and First Amendment issues.

Chance graduated with honors from the University of Florida's College of Law in 1990 and was named to the Order of the Coif. She practiced media law with the law firm of Holland & Knight in Tampa, Florida. There she handled litigation concerning access to public records and judicial proceedings, reporter subpoenas and Florida's Government in the Sunshine Law. Chance also served as an Assistant General Counsel at the University of Florida.

Chance has published in numerous academic and professional journals and newspapers, including the Communication Law and Policy journal, the Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, Quill and Editor & Publisher. She has authored several chapters in the Reporters' Handbook and is a frequent contributor to The Brechner Report. She frequently has been interviewed and quoted as an expert in media law issues by the state's media approximately 500 times.

Chance is on the board of directors of the First Amendment Foundation and is active in the National Freedom of Information Coalition. She is the Sunshine Chair for the Society of Professional Journalists and is a member of the American Bar Association, the Order of the Coif, and the Florida Association for Women Lawyers. She served as Research Chair of the Association for Journalism and Mass Communications' Law Division in 1997 and is a member of the Broadcast Education Association. She is admitted to practice before the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. She is a past director of the Florida Magazine Association and was active in the Florida Press Association.

Chance earned her M.A. with high honors and distinction in Journalism and Communications in 1985 from the University of Florida where she also earned her B.S. with high honors in 1975. She was a teaching fellow at the University of Florida's College of Law and a research assistant with the Center for Governmental Responsibility at the College of Law.

Before entering the practice of law, Chance held a variety of positions in the journalism and communications field.

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