Federal government employees are invited to a Chief FOIA Officers (CFO) Council best practices workshop from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, October 25. The Council’s Committee on Cross-Agency Collaboration and Innovation (COCACI) Resources Working Group is hosting the virtual workshop on “Innovative Methods for Using and Sharing Resources.” Registration is required and is limited to those with a .gov or .mil email address.
The workshop schedule will include three panels:
- How to Build – or Rebuild – a Successful Agency Information Program, moderated by Mike Bell (Department of Transportation). Panelists are Brent Evitt (Defense Intelligence Agency), Mike Seidel (Federal Bureau of Investigation), and Jennifer Goode (Department of Commerce).
- FOIA Technology – Where can it help, where does it fall short? moderated by Regina Stabile (National Institute of Environmental Health Services). Panelists are Gorka Garcia-Malene (National Institutes of Health), Michael Sarich (Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)), and Eric Stein (Department of State).
- Innovative FOIA Staffing Opportunities moderated by Abi Oyewole (Consumer Product Safety Commission). Panelists are Adrianne Blake (Department of Justice), Brandon Gaylord (Department of State), and Catrina Pavlik-Keenan (Department of Homeland Security).
There will also be a discussion featuring Ms. Blake and Johan Englen (VA) about their experiences using the U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s Pathways Programs, developmental programs for students and recent graduates in the federal workforce.
The CFO Council established COCACI in 2021 in response to a FOIA Advisory Committee recommendation (No. 2020-16) to research and propose cross-agency programs, create federal career paths for FOIA professionals, and align agency resources to promote transparency. COCACI’s Resources Working Group works to identify opportunities for standardization of resources available to FOIA offices to increase efficiency and ease of use across government agencies.