Former Board Members
Former Co-Founder Polly Olsen
In 2018, Olsen’s rights were violated again for handing out valentines. Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty filed a federal lawsuit on Olsen’s behalf, challenging NWTC for violating her first amendment rights on campus. During this ordeal, Olsen was invited to speak at the White House for the Freedom of Speech Executive Order signing in March, 2019. The Leadership Institute was instrumental in making this opportunity happen.
September 2019, a federal judge ruled in Olsen’s favor, awarding her a win for freedom of speech on campus! Shortly after Olsen Co-founded the non-profit Free Speech For Campus (FSFC), which has been instrumental at the state level in getting change done and attention to the lack of freedom of speech on Wisconsin University campuses. She is currently severing as FSFC's Digital and Social media director, working on writing a book and speaks around the country, telling her story and asserting that one voice can indeed make a difference for freedom.
Former Wisconsin Senator Roger Roth
Born in Appleton, Roger went to St. Mary Catholic High School in Menasha and is a graduate of UW-Oshkosh. From a young age, Roger would lend a hand with the family construction business, and later was entrusted to oversee crews on jobsites.
Following graduation from UW-Oshkosh, Roger not only continued to lead the family construction business, but also joined the Wisconsin Air National Guard. He served four tours in the Middle East, having been deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and three times in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Roger continues to serve as a military officer in the Wisconsin Air National Guard holding the rank of Captain.
In 2006, Roger was elected to represent the 56th Assembly District, and after a short time away from public office was elected as State Senator of the 19th Senate District in 2014. For the 2017-18 legislative session, Roger’s Senate colleagues elected him as President of the Senate, at the age of 38, Roger is tied for the youngest senator to hold the position. In 2018, he was re-elected and again served as Senate President for the 2019-20 legislative session. Senator Roth serves as the Chair of the Senate Committee on Universities and Technical Colleges for the 2021-2022 session.
Roger currently resides in Appleton with his wife Rebecca and their five young boys: Roger Jr, Oliver, Theodore, Winston, and William.
The Late Professor John McAdams
Professor McAdams was one of the founding board members and was very out spoken about freedom of speech. He also had his own freedom of speech case reach the Wisconsin Supreme Court. More on his case can be found under Professor’s testimonies.
Please see his memorial service recording.
Todd Berry
Todd A. Berry has devoted much of his public life to promoting civil discourse and good government. He fervently believes, as did the founders, that representative government only thrives when citizens are well informed and actively involved. For a quarter century, Berry headed Wisconsin’s only statewide charity dedicated solely to nonpartisan policy research and civic education, the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance (WISTAX). In that capacity, Berry visited every corner of the state to teach and inform the public, press, and public officials about state and local government. He is widely recognized for his unusual ability to explain complex issues in a clear, objective, and easy-to-understand manner.
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel once called Berry “a person of quick mind and restrained temperament.” The Green Bay Press-Gazette observed that “few people can measure Wisconsin’s pulse as well as Todd Berry,” and the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram praised him as “a tax guru . . . trying to explain tax policy in language we can understand.”
A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of UW-Madison, Berry went on to earn master’s degrees from Harvard, where he was a national HUD fellow and then a Woodrow Wilson Foundation administrative fellow, and the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, which named him its top marketing graduate in 1990. Later in his professional life, Todd wrote an award-winning dissertation and earned a PhD in educational policy and finance from UW-Madison.