Sydney Sims joins the Joseph L. Brechner Freedom of Information Project Nov. 12 as its first full-time outreach coordinator to lead national Sunshine Week and other efforts to educate journalists and the public about their rights to access government information.

Sims will coordinate Sunshine Week, which was started in 2005 to promote the right to know in the United States. The initiative is now led by the Brechner FOI Project after News Leaders Association, its initial founding organization, closed in June. Her position is partly funded by an endowment from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. She will also provide trainings at journalism conferences, lead the Brechner FOI Project’s communications, produce the monthly Brechner Report, and develop online educational materials. Sims most recently worked as a community engagement reporter for Capital B News in Atlanta, a nonprofit news organization that centers on Black voices. She previously worked at the Atlanta NPR affiliate, WABE FM News, and the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer in Columbus, Georgia. She is a 2020 journalism graduate of Auburn University, and this year she was a fellow for Investigative Reporters and Editors and the Association of Health Care Journalists.

“I’m super excited to join the Brechner FOI Project and to have the opportunity to lead efforts that promote transparency,” Sims said. “Access to government information is a vital part of our democratic right to hold those in positions of power accountable and I am thrilled that I will have the opportunity to work alongside journalists and communities nationwide to help ensure they have the knowledge to advocate for that access.”

Brechner FOI Project Director David Cuillier said Sims will be the center’s first full-time outreach coordinator in its 47-year history.

“Government agencies are becoming less and less transparent, and few people are aware of their rights to see what the government is doing,” Cuillier said. “At the same time, journalists, serving as proxies for the public, are stretched thin more than ever. We are excited that Sydney will help everyone learn about the power of public records.”

The non-partisan, nonprofit Brechner FOI Project, founded in 1977, works to educate journalists, policymakers and the general public about the law of access today and how it should work tomorrow. The Project, based in Weimer Hall 1204 at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications, is a source of research, expertise and advocacy about the law of gathering and disseminating news across all platforms and technologies. For more information, visit the website at https://brechner.jou.ufl.edu/FOI/, or contact Cuillier at cuillierd@ufl.edu.

Posted: November 12, 2024
Category: Brechner News
Tagged as: Brechner FOI, Knight Foundation, Outreach Coordinator, Sunshine Week