Speaker Biographies

Bunk, Amy

Amy Bunk is the Director of Legal Affairs and Policy for the Office of the Federal Register. She is also the Co-chairperson of the Plain Language Action and Information Network, and organization of the U.S. government employees whose goal is to promote the use of plain language for all government communications.

Ms. Bunk worked in the Office of Regulations and Administrative Law, Office of the Judge Advocate General, United States Coast Guard from November 2005 until October 2007.

She received JD cum laude from Syracuse University College of Law and is a member of the Justinian Honorary Law Society.

Cheek, Annetta L.

Dr. Annetta L. Cheek became an advocate for plain language in the early 1990s and is a 25-year veteran of federal government. She has worked her career to get federal agencies to communicate more clearly.

In the mid-1990s, she was one of the founders of the federal plain language group, now called PLAIN. She worked as vice-president Al Gore’s National Partnership in Reinventing Government for four years, ending in 2000.

In 1998, she was one of the principal authors of President Clinton’s presidential memorandum on plain language. In 2003, she was one of several founders of the non-profit Center for Plain Language. The center was instrumental in educating Congress about the need for legislation requiring the federal government to write clearly, which culminated in the Plain Writing Act of 2010.

Dr. Cheek has a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Arizona.

Fraizier, Jennifer

Kentucky State Law Librarian Jennifer Frazier was a member of a three-person Kentucky team that participated in a national conference about how public libraries can improve online access to legal information at libraries.  The team was one of 15 chosen to attend the conference out of 42 applying from 31 states.

As head of the State Law Library, Frazier oversees an operation that provides research and reference assistance to the Kentucky Court of Justice and houses the central collection of legal research materials for state government.

Frazier has served as the state law librarian since September 2006. She joined the law library as its legal counsel in March 2003 and served as the assistant state law librarian from April 2005 until being named law librarian.

She practiced law in Louisville for a year and a half before coming to the state law library. She earned her juris doctor from the University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis School of Law in 2001. She received her master’s degree in Library and Information Science from the University of Kentucky in 2007. Frazier earned her bachelor’s degree in history from Northern Kentucky University.

Jaquith, Waldo

Waldo Jaquith is a website developer and open government technologist from Charlottesville, Virginia. In 2011, in acknowledgement of his transparency of work, he was named a “Champion of Change” by the White House, where he went on to work, launching Ethics.gov in March of 2012. Jaquith hold a degree in political science from Virginia Tech and was a 2005 graduate of the Sorensen Institute of Political Leadership. He lives on a small farm with his wife and infant son.

Martinez, John

John Hyrum Martinez was appointed by the New Mexico Commission on Public Records to be State Records Administrator and the Director of the State Records Center and Archives in 2011. He earned his Bachelor of Arts, Magna Cum Laude, in History with a minor in Spanish from Brigham Young University and his Master of Arts in History, with a focus on the American Southwest from the University of Texas at Austin. He is a certified archivist.

Martinez has been with the State Records Center and Archives for about 12 years during which he served as an archivist, Director of the Administrative Law Division, and State Records Administrator.

Palen, Elizabeth

Elizabeth A. Palen is the Executive Director of the Joint Commission on Administrative Rules, the Administrative Law Advisory Committee and the Virginia Housing Commission; all housed within the Virginia Division of Legislative Services.

The Joint Commission on Administrative Rules provides a bi-partisan arena for regulatory dispute resolution. The Administrative Law Advisory Committee studies and offers recommendations to the Virginia Code Commission concerning regulatory process. The Virginia Housing Commission studies housing issues and is a forum to create legislation and solutions for housing issues ranging from mortgages to blight and neighborhood revitalization.

Palen provides legal council, staff meetings and drafts bills dealing with regulatory and housing issues.

Prior to her employment with the Divisions of Legislative Services, Elizabeth was the Executive Director of a Community Development Corporation, a lobbyist, legal researcher for the Virginia Senate, and a staff member for the Clerk of the Virginia House of Delegates.

Palen was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree from Mary Baldwin College in Political Science and Art and a juris doctor from the T.C. Williams School of Law University of Richmond.

Stevenson, Dennis

Dennis Stevenson is the Administrative Rules Coordinator for the State of Idaho. The Office of the Administrative Rules Coordinator is an Executive Branch office and is part of the Department of Administration. Stevenson has worked for the State of Idaho for 22 years. He has been with the Office of the Administrative Rules Coordinator since its inception in 1992.

During his tenure Stevenson has overseen many office innovations including implementing desktop publishing techniques for rules publications, providing free electronic access to the Idaho Administrative Code, the Administrative Bulletin and rules-related documents, electronic filing of rulemaking documents, and providing electronic access to all legislative rules review publications. Many of these innovations have saved the State of Idaho thousands of dollars.

Stevenson is a department administrator, the managing editor of both the Idaho Administrative Code and the Idaho Administrative Bulletin, the legislative and agency liaison for the office, and a training specialist in administrative law, rule promulgation, rule writing and Idaho APA compliance.

Stevenson joined ACR in 1995 and is now an emeritus member. He has served as the Mountain West Regional Representative, 2001 Summer Conference Program Chair, and as an ACR officer.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in History with minors in English and Spanish from Boise State University. Stevenson is also a Certified Public Manager and a member of the Idaho Society of Certified Public Managers and is a member in good standing in the American Academy of Certified Public Managers.

Yamaka, Julie

Julie Yamaka has managed the Publications Unit of the Archives Division of the Oregon Secretary of State since 1997. The Publications Unit is charged with filing and publishing the Oregon Administrative Rules, and compiling and publishing the Oregon Blue Book. Yamaka has been managing editor of the Oregon Blue Book since 2002. She has worked for the Oregon Secretary of State since 1990.

Yamaka served as President of ACR from 2008 to 2010, and has been a member of ACR since 1998. She served as the ACR Pacific West regional representative from 2000 to 2004 and again from 2010 to the present, and was the 2002 Summer Conference Chair in Providence, Rhode Island. She was ACR Secretary/Treasurer from 2004 to 2006 and Vice President from 2006 to 2008.

Yamaka holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in German Language from the University of Oregon. She and her husband live in Salem and have two grown children, Stephanie and Kevin.