See candidate bios beneath the ballot.

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* 1. Required - Your name

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* 2. Please vote for your selected nominee in the category of PRESIDENT or write in a candidate. For write-in candidates, include name, agency/organization and contact telephone or email. 

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* 3. Please vote for your selected nominee in the category of SECRETARY, or write in a candidate. For write-in candidates, include name, agency/organization and contact telephone or email.

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* 4. Please vote for your selected nominee in the category of DIRECTOR-AT-LARGE, or write in candidates. For write-in candidates, include name, agency/organization and contact telephone or email. There are three vacant positions. Please select up to and no more than three candidates (Listed alphabetically by last name.)

2025-2026 ASAP Board of Directors Candidate Bios
Listed Alphabetically
Michael L. Heise, Esq. Assistant Legal Counsel of the EEOC’s FOIA Division. EEOC’s FOIA Public Liaison, Former committee member with the FOIA Advisory Committee. Current ASAP Board Member.

Past, Present and Future Contributions/Expertise: Years of experience processing FOIA requests and appeals; engaging with the requester community as the Commission’s FOIA Public Liaison.
Nate Jones is the award-winning FOIA director for The Washington Post, where he works with reporters to target documents to request, appeal and sue for. He works with reporters to obtain local, state and federal records and to think strategically about public records in all formats. He gives FOIA training sessions and advises reporters on how to write, refine and track requests, navigate delays and overredactions, and overcome other bureaucratic resistance. He is also author of the "Revealing Records" column which describes The Post's battles for public records. He has served two terms on the Federal FOIA Advisory Committee and holds a JD from the University of the District of Columbia. He previously was the director of the FOIA Project for the National Security Archive, where he used FOLA to write a book on the 1983 Able Archer nuclear war scare. Education: Lewis and Clark College, BA in history; George Washington University, MA in history: University of the District of Columbia, JD Honors and Awards: member of the team which won the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting 2024: Investigative Reporters and Editors Freedom of Information Award, 2023: News Leader Association First Amendment Award, 2023; National Press Club Michael A. Dornheim Award, 2023: member of the team that won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, 2022. Professional Affiliations: fellow at the National Security Archive; currently serving as secretary for the American Society of Access Professionals, and a member of Investigative Reporters and Editors.

Past, Present and Future Contributions/Expertise: See above. Have previously served as an ASAP Director.
Ryan Mulvey has served as President of the American Society of Access Professionals since 2021. Ryan is employed as Policy Counsel at Americans for Prosperity Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization committed to educating Americans to be advocates for freedom and real change. In that role, he works on various legal policy issues, especially government transparency at the federal and state levels. Ryan volunteers as Counsel at Cause of Action Institute, where he has specialized in Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) practice since 2013, but also engages on broader administrative-law topics. Ryan has extensive experience with FOIA litigation and amicus work at the district court, appellate, and Supreme Court levels; as a policy expert, he frequently advises congressional and state legislative staff about transparency reforms; and he researches cutting-edge open-government topics. In his personal time, Ryan helps run FOIAadvisor.com—a free, online resource on all things related to the federal FOIA. He is a graduate of the University of San Diego (BA) and Boston University (JD/MA).

Past, Present and Future Contributions/Expertise: Ryan has been a member of ASAP since 2018. For the past four years, he has also been honored to serve as ASAP President. Since joining the organization, he has contributed to ASAP as a faculty member at National Training Conferences, FOIA-Privacy Act Training Workshops, and other events such as “Food for Thought” seminars and other special training events. As President, Ryan spearheaded the creation of a “Strategic Vision Task Force,” which remains an ongoing effort to realign ASAP’s vision and operations for a more vibrant future. He appreciates working to highlight ASAP’s mission to bring
Ethan Watson, I have worked in the City Clerk’s Office for six years now, four years as City Clerk and two years previously as the Deputy City Clerk. Prior to that I worked as an attorney in private practice for seven years representing state entities, counties, and school districts in an array of civil litigation.

Past, Present and Future Contributions/Expertise: It has been a time of immense change in the area of public records requests in New Mexico. When I started in the City Clerk’s Office in 2018, the volume of requests the City was receiving had tripled in three years. In the six years since then, volume has increased by 10 to thirty percent each year. We were receiving six thousand requests per year in 2018, we are on track to receive 16,000 requests this year.

This dramatic change in volume has created many challenges from how to staff this volume, to how to handle increasingly complex requests, to how to address new, novel issues in litigation, to how to manage this challenging area of public policy. In my role, I have been constantly searching for new and better ways to process and manage requests for public records requests specifically and manage public records programs globally. I have engaged with other programs locally and engaged with other state and local programs nationally and implemented many changes to the City’s public records program as a result. My efforts have been recognized locally by the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government (NMFOG) with their Dixon Award

and nationally by the International Institute of Municipal Clerk’s with their Program Excellence in Governance (PEGA) award. As I have engaged with other programs, I have found it extremely useful for all to work to create communities of interest and also created a regular quarterly zoom among local records custodians to engage on issues of concern or challenges regarding the processing of requests.

During all this time, I have found the work of the American Society of Access Professionals (ASAP) extremely helpful and inspirational. The organization has a unique focus on the actual processing of requests and the law of FOIA that is unlike any other entity I have found. I would look forward to serving on the board of the organization to facilitate and further engagement with state and local public records and freedom of information programs. ASAP has much to offer these programs.
Tammy Wray serves as the training director for the Department of Veterans Affairs newly created position as of May 2023. Prior to this role, she served as VASHNS’ Supervisor role to Privacy/FOIA Officer, Records Manger, and Release of Information section supervisor.

Ms. Wray is actively involved in all aspects of FOIA Training to include program strategic planning, organizational assessment, and professional development, she is responsible for over 600 FOIA professionals across the VA enterprise to include our component departments the VHA, NCA, and VBA. Before joining the VA In 2015, Ms. Wray taught Aerospace Science and Leadership after retiring from the United States Air Force where she served as a supervisor and manager in numerous roles from Protocol, Aerospace Science, Occupational Health, and Education and Training.

In 2018 Ms. Wray graduated from Columbia Southern University with a master’s in healthcare administration. In 2014, she completed master’s in emergency management and in 2011, she completed her bachelor’s in criminal justice. She is also a graduate of the 2022 VA Leadership Development Institute and the 2015 Supervisory Course. Ms. Wray also hold certifications in Professional Management, Inspector General’s Course, and the National Society of Leadership and Success.

Past, Present and Future Contributions/Expertise:

- Speaker at VA breakouts NTC 2023 and 2024
- Speaker for ASAP Workshop 2024 on Customer Service and Managing your Career.

- Would like to actively be involved in future education and training for all of ASAP conferences.
- Would like to be a speaker for:
Backlog Reduction
Customer Service
Career Management
Drafting Key Templates

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