About Us
Caroline Klancke Esq., Executive Director
Caroline Klancke is an attorney, author, lecturer, and Board-Certified Compliance & Ethics
Professional (CCEP). She is the founder and Executive Director of the Florida Ethics Institute (FEI). Prior to founding FEI, she served as General Counsel and Deputy Executive Director of the Florida Commission on Ethics, the independent agency tasked with interpreting and enforcing the Florida Code of Ethics. She is the author of the Florida Ethics Handbook—the only comprehensive guide to governmental ethics regulations in Florida. In 2015, the Florida Government Bar Association selected her as a finalist for Government Attorney of the Year. In 2023 the Florida Association of County Attorneys honored her with the Ethics in Government award. In 2024 Ms. Klancke was appointed to serve on the Tallahassee Independent Ethics Board. Ms. Klancke lives in Tallahassee, Florida, where she also serves as Florida State University’s Associate Compliance Officer and Director of Ethics and Integrity Programs, and teaches public service ethics.
Board of Directors
Dr. Sylvie Naar, President
Dr. Sylvie Naar is the Distinguished Endowed Professor in the College of Medicine’s department of Behavioral Sciences and Social Medicine at Florida State University, where she is the founding director of the Center for Translational Behavioral Science. Dr. Naar has worked closely with the developers of MI (Miller and Rollnick) to author the first textbook focusing on adolescents and young adults for Guilford Press’ Motivational Interviewing series (Naar and Suarez, 2nd edition, 2021). Most recently she was awarded an NIH center grant to address HIV and alcohol self-management in young adults in Florida and the NIH Director’s Transformative Research Award to develop antiracism interventions in patient-centered medical homes. Dr. Naar is also an MPI of an NIH FIRST Award; an initiative to recruit and retain underrepresented minority faculty.
Robert L. Teitler, Vice President
Robert L. Teitler is a Florida native who has practiced law in this state for over 37 years. Mr. Teitler has represented County government for many years in various sectors, including labor and employment, ethics, procurement and transactional, aviation, personal injury, and taxation, and has served as Chair of the City, County and Local Government Law Section of The Florida Bar, where he founded and Chaired the Sunshine Law, Public Records and Ethics for Public Officers and Public Employees annual seminar.
Katie McCormick, Secretary
Katie McCormick is the Associate Dean of Libraries for Special Collections & Archives at The Florida State University, a position she has served in since December 2011. In this role, Mrs. McCormick manages the units responsible for Florida State University archives, rare books, and historical collections as well as the Digital Library Center and Sunshine State Digital Network, a statewide collaborative to share digitized cultural heritage resources nationally. Mrs. McCormick has over 20 years of professional and non-profit experience. During her career, she has built a reputation for fostering collaboration, ethical response, and open records access. Mrs. McCormick brings a passion for ethics, record keeping, and government accountability to her work with the Board. She holds an M.L.I.S. Simmons College, and a M.A. in English, with a focus in Irish Literature and Culture, from Boston College.
Dr. Kim Klancke, Treasurer
Dr. Kim Klancke is a graduate of Princeton University and the University of Cincinnati School of Medicine. Dr. Klancke has been licensed to practice medicine in Florida since 1982. He is Board Certified in Internal Medicine and Cardiovascular Disease. He is a Fellow in the American College of Cardiology. He is also a former member of the Board of Directors of the Daytona Beach Museum of Arts and Sciences where he and his wife have endowed the Environmental Learning Center.
Herbert W.A. Thiele, Member At Large
Herbert Thiele is an attorney that served as Of Counsel with the law firm Nabors, Giblin & Nickerson, P.A.’s Tallahassee Office from 2020 to 2023. He previously served as County Attorney for Leon County, Florida, for 30 years. Prior to joining Leon County, Mr. Thiele was the City Attorney for the City of Delray Beach, Florida, for over eight years, and an Assistant City Attorney in Delray Beach while in private practice for the three years preceding. Mr. Thiele is a graduate of University of Notre Dame and the University of Florida Levin College of Law. Mr. Thiele has served as the President of the Florida Association of County Attorneys for four separate terms, and was President of the International Municipal Lawyers Association from 2015-2016. The City, County, & Local Government Law Section of the Florida Bar awarded Mr. Thiele the Ralph A. Marsicano Award, the Section’s highest honor, in 1991 for significant contributions to the development of local government law in Florida. Additionally, in 2000 Mr. Thiele received the Paul S. Buchman Award for outstanding contributions in the area of legal public service, and in 2016 Mr. Thiele received the H. Hamilton “Chip” Rice Award in recognition of his efforts in the area of mentoring and educating future leaders of the profession, especially in Local Government Law. Mr. Thiele was also honored to receive the Ethics in Government Award from the Florida Association of County Attorneys in 1998, 2001, and 2019, as well as the Chair Service Award from by the City, County, & Local Government Law Section of the Florida Bar in 2005 and again in 2018.
Norman Ostrau, Member At Large
Norman Ostrau is an attorney and Former Director of the Public Ethics Academy at Florida Atlantic University, where he also taught Ethics and Administrative Law. He also lectures on Ethics for the Florida Institute of Government. He currently serves as Ethics Officer for the City of West Palm Beach, Florida.
Norman was Deputy County Attorney for Broward County specializing in Ethics and Election Law. He served as a member of the Florida Election Commission, and as Chair of the Florida
Commission on Ethics. He is a past steering committee member and member of the Council on Governmental Ethics Laws, an international organization dealing with ethics and election regulations.
Norman served as a member of the Florida House of Representatives and chaired the House Ethics and Election Committee.
He received his Bachelor of Science from Carnegie Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon University, and his Juris Doctor from Nova University.
