Neil Reisner is an associate professor of journalism at Florida International University. He was a daily newspaper reporter/editor for 25 years, working at the Miami Herald and the Bergen(NJ) Record, among other papers. He taught journalism at Columbia and Rutgers universities and was training director for Investigative Reporters & Editors/National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting. Reisner has contributed to the New York Times, the New York Post, American Journalism Review and Columbia Journalism Review, among others, and frequently speaks on public records and research at regional and national conferences. He is a member SPJ's Legal Defense Fund Committee and is an elected judge for Investigative Reporters & Editors's 2010 journalism awards. He served on Louisiana State University's Forum on Media Diversity. He earned his hippie looks in 1969 and maintained them by following the Grateful Dead for a couple of decades.