MODERATOR: Charley Williams



Charley is a native Floridan by way of Jacksonville and has lived in Winter Park for over 25 years. He joined the League in 2007 and has served on the state board as well as chair, LWVF State Voter Services Committee and as the first male president of this League. 

Past projects for Williams include local team bid efforts to land the 1994 World Cup for Orlando, followed by successful bid efforts to land Olympic soccer matches in conjunction with the 1996 Atlanta Games. He has served six years as Trustee for the Florida First Amendment Foundation. He is also a founding member of the all-volunteer Alliance for Truth and Justice, working in concert with the Montgomery-based Equal Justice Institute (EJI). To date, two EJI lynching markers have been dedicated in Orange County.

He currently chairs the Winter Park Land Trust Trees Committee. 

Williams is a graduate of Davidson College and has spent career time in Atlanta, Washington, DC, New York, and New Orleans (as a cook on a tugboat).

An avid folk-art collector, his personal collection “Rooted Visions” is now touring the country through 2028.

Bob Shaw

Board Member, Florida First Amendment Foundation

Bob Shaw is a retired editor who spent 48 years working for newspapers, most of them in Florida.

He moved to Florida in 1968 to work at The Miami Herald, where he held several reporting positions including Tallahassee bureau chief and Washington correspondent.

In 1991, he was named managing editor of the Tallahassee Democrat.

In 2000, he accepted the first of several senior editing positions at the Orlando Sentinel, from which he retired in 2013. Shaw joined the board of the First Amendment Foundation in 1991 and is a past chairman.

Judith Smelser

President and General Manager, Central Florida Public Media

Judith Smelser is president and general manager of Central Florida Public Media, previously named WMFE, the only local nonprofit news organization serving the nine-county Central Florida region. She began her journalism career in Washington, D.C., before moving to Central Florida in 2004 to join the newsroom at WMFE. Over nearly eight years, she excelled as an award-winning reporter and later as news director. In 2011, she left for Colorado Public Radio, where she held several newsroom leadership

roles.

After her time in Colorado, Smelser returned to Orlando and launched Smelser Editing & Consulting, providing consulting and training services to more than 30 public media organizations nationwide. Her journey came full circle when she returned to WMFE as president and general manager.

Since joining the organization in 2021, she has led Central Florida Public Media to launch the local discussion show Engage, the local news podcast The Wrap, a new reporting beat covering housing and homelessness, and the Emerging Journalists Fellowship program. In 2024, she spearheaded the rebranding of WMFE to Central Florida Public Media, representing the nonprofit's evolution into a multimedia organization dedicated to serving the local region with trustworthy, independent journalism. Her leadership has been particularly critical as public media organizations, including Central Florida Public Media, adapt to the elimination of federal and state funding.

Smelser also collaborated with the Central Florida Foundation and Oviedo Community News to create the News Collaborative of Central Florida, a collective of independent local news outlets and aligned partners working toward a more informed and engaged Central Florida. The collaborative grew out of a series of Local Journalism Ecosystem Summits held at Central Florida Public Media in 2024 and aims to address the challenges facing local news now and into the future.

In addition to leading Central Florida Public Media, Smelser serves on the Executive Committee of the Board for Florida Public Media.

In recognition of her contributions, Smelser was honored as one of ONYX Magazine’s 2025 Women on the Move, Orlando Magazine’s 2024 Women of the Year and one of the Orlando Business Journal’s 2024 Most Influential Leaders.

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