Speaking Out, Staying Safe: Free Speech and Online Safety for Public Employees and Educators

Lee Rowland, Executive Director, National Coalition Against Censorship

Lee Rowland served for over a decade as a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, the Brennan Center for Justice, and the New York Civil Liberties Union. She has extensive experience as a litigator, lobbyist, and public speaker. She has served as lead counsel in federal First Amendment cases involving public employee speech rights, the First Amendment rights of community advocates, government regulation of digital speech, and state secrecy surrounding the lethal injection process. She is also a prolific author of amicus briefs and blogs, where she provides insightful analyses of issues such as speech and privacy intersection, student and public employee speech, obscenity, and the Communications Decency Act. She also has represented several NCAC Partner Organizations. Rowland has taught at New York University School of Law and the Hunter College Human Rights Program. She is a Communications and Media Law Committee member at the New York Bar Association. She is a graduate of Middlebury College and Harvard Law School.

Viktorya Vilk, Director, Digital Safety and Free Expression

Viktorya Vilk (she/her/hers) is the director for digital safety and free expression at PEN America. She created and runs the organization’s Online Abuse Defense Program, which equips writers and journalists with self-defense training and resources, partners with media organizations and publishers to strengthen protections for writers and journalists, and conducts research and advocacy on platform accountability. Her work has been featured on PBS Newshour, The New York Times, Slate, and Harvard Business Review, and she regularly speaks at conferences on digital safety and press freedom, including for the Online News Association, RightsCon, International Journalism Festival, Investigative Reporters and Editors, and MozFest, among others. Prior to joining PEN America, she worked on organizational strategy and development at the Art & Global Health Center Africa, a Malawian NGO that advocates for health and human rights through the arts. She has organized exhibitions, developed public programs, managed a collection re-installation project, and created innovative digital platforms showcasing art and architecture at the Jewish Museum, the Clark Art Institute, The Frick Collection, and the Courtauld Gallery. She completed graduate degrees, as a Marshall Scholar, at the University of London, and has over a decade of experience working in nonprofits to expand access to the arts and defend creative and press freedom.