Meet the board
The center’s advisory board advises the director on potential research, teaching and service projects and potential partners and funders. Board members also provide researchers and students with access to people and organizations that can provide assistance to center projects.
The board members are:
Richard C. Balough of Balough Law Offices, LLC, in Chicago, focuses on privacy, intellectual property, and working with start-up companies. He also serves as general counsel for small businesses. Balough has written articles on privacy and e-commerce for several publications, including the Computer & Information Law Journal, the American Bar Association’s Business Law Today, Marketing News, the Illinois State Bar Journal, and the Chicago Bar Association’s CBA Record. He also authored a chapter on copyrights in the Illinois Institute of Continuing Legal Education’s Handbook on Intellectual Property Law. Before transitioning to a career in the law, he was an editor and reporter for the Chicago Daily News, the Miami Herald, the South Bend Tribune, and the (Bloomington, Ind.) Herald-Telephone. He obtained his undergraduate degree in journalism from Indiana University, where he served as editor of the Indiana Daily Student.
Daniel P. Byron is a partner in the Indianapolis law firm of Bingham Greenebaum Doll. He has experience in media law, intellectual property, and complex business litigation. He earned his bachelor of arts and law degrees at Indiana University-Bloomington. In 2007, he was selected by the International Senior Lawyers Project to lead a team of West African attorneys working in Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone to end impunity for violence against journalists, publishers, and broadcasters, and to fight laws limiting freedom of expression in those nations.
Jan M. Carroll is Of Counsel (retired) from the Indianapolis office of Barnes & Thornburg LLP, where she practiced product liability, professional liability, real estate and land use, commercial dispute, and media law. She is a former reporter and editor for the Associated Press and contributes sections on Indiana law to the Media Law Resource Center’s 50-State Survey: Media Libel Law and the Open Government Guide published by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. She earned a bachelor of fine arts degree in journalism from Southern Methodist University and her law degree from the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law in Indianapolis.
Victor Jackovich is a former United States ambassador to Bosnia and Slovenia. He is the president of Jackovich International, a commercial and trading firm with offices in Washington, D.C.; Vienna, Austria; and Portoroz, Slovenia. He is an adviser on international affairs for several companies, including General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin. He is a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington and is on the boards of the Central and East European University Network and the Center for European Perspective. He is an alumnus of Indiana University.
Charles H. Lichtman recently retired as a partner at Berger Singerman LLP in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where his practice focuses on complex commercial litigation and trial practice. Lichtman served as statewide lead counsel for the Florida Democratic Party from 2000 through 2008, overseeing election law and voter protection issues and also working extensively with the media during this period, particularly in the presidential elections of 2000, 2004, and 2008. He is an alumnus of the Indiana University School of Journalism and earned his law degree at DePaul University’s College of Law.
Lynn Oberlander is a leading media attorney and advocate for journalists, now in private practice. She is currently Of Counsel with the law firm of Ballard Spahr LLP. She previously worked at Univision Communications Inc. and its subsidiary, Gizmodo Media Group; First Look Media Works; and the New Yorker. She is a graduate of Yale and Columbia Law School. She teaches graduate courses in media law and media ethics at The New School in New York.
Carrie Ritchie is a social business manager for IBM and is based in Indianapolis. Previously, she was the social media editor for The Indianapolis Star. She graduated from Indiana University with highest distinction in May 2008. While at IU, she earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism, a business foundations certificate, and minors in marketing, French, and psychology. She also was editor-in-chief of the Indiana Daily Student and a member of Alpha Xi Delta sorority. She was a representative of the IU Journalism Alumni Board and is the executive director of EntouRaj for Kids, a non-profit tennis organization. She also is an adjunct instructor for The Media School.
Mark Stephens, CBE, is a partner in Howard Kennedy LLP in London. His practice specializes in international law, appellate and complex litigation, and constitutional, human rights, intellectual property, privacy, freedom of information, and other areas of media law. He was appointed by the Foreign Secretary to the FCO Free Expression advisory board and by the Lord Chancellor to be a Champion for the Community Legal Service. He chairs a number of bodies, including the University of East London and the Management Committee of the Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy, Wolfson College, Oxford Centre for Socio-Legal Studies.
Andrea Vega Yudico is an Assistant Program Officer with the Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) at the National Endowment for Democracy. CIMA specializes in improving the effectiveness of media development efforts in developing countries and aims to build knowledge on best practices and solutions for improving media systems. She previously covered the White House, the 2020 presidential election, and national security as a producer for NHK Japan Broadcasting in Washington D.C. She has advocated for global press freedom and freedom of expression during her time with Reporters Without Borders in Taiwan. She has also written for English-language publications in China and Uganda. She graduated with a B.A. in Journalism and a B.A. in International Studies from Indiana University Bloomington in 2019.