Biography

Emilene Martínez Morales is Deputy Director of the National Security Archive's Mexico Project and also coordinates its transparency initiatives in Latin America. She is based in Washington, D.C. A Mexican citizen, she completed her master's degree in International Relations at Tecnológico de Monterrey in Monterrey, Mexico, where she previously received an undergraduate degree and a graduate fellowship.

Emilene has been working on access to information issues since 2001 and has made presentations on freedom of information in public briefings in Europe and the Americas. Emilene has done consulting work for FOI oversight bodies in Mexico and Chile.

She is the coordinator of México Infórmate, a civil society initiative to open a dialogue through the media about the importance of open government and freedom of information at the national and local levels. México Infórmate celebrates activities throughout the week when Right to Know day is observed.

She has extensive experience in filing and processing FOI requests and appeals in Mexico and the United States. Emilene has also organized numerous events to train civil society, journalists, academics and the media on how to file access to information requests. She has published extensively on right to know issues and currently blogs about transparency and access to information at Mexican newspaper El Universal (http://blogs.eluniversal.com.mx/mxicoinf/).

Statement of Interest

What I would do...

As a member of the steering committee, I would like to encourage partnerships across member organizations in different countries and facilitate the exchange of experiences outside the mailing list.

I would work on strengthening our efforts in promoting Right to Know Day and in coordinating and documenting activities carried out across different regions.

I believe FOIAnet can particularly benefit from social media. As part of the steering committee, I would work with other interested members in designing strategies to allow us to use social networks effectively to disseminate information related to the right to know.

It would be a great honor to serve as part of the committee. If elected, I pledge to work with the rest of my colleagues to strengthen FOIAnet so it can better serve its members' needs.