Please be respectful of the time of our attorneys. Direct all legal inquiries, not to the individual attorney, but to info@eff.org. All inquiries will be routed to info@eff.org. For expedited responses to media inquiries, please email press@eff.org.
Veridiana coordinates EFF's activities with local organizations and activists in Latin America, where we work together to reinforce the defense of digital and human rights. Veridiana has been involved with telecommunications, media, Internet and human rights issues since 2009. She has been a member of Brazilian Internet Steering Committee (CGI.br) as one of the civil society representatives (2010-2013) and worked in Brazilian civil organizations such as Idec and Intervozes. Veridiana is a lawyer, has a Ph.D in Human Rights from the University of São Paulo Law School, and holds a Masters degree in Economic Law from the same institution.
Matthew is the Accounting Director at EFF. He has been a finance leader for several Bay Area nonprofits and brings his passion for civil liberties to EFF. Matthew enjoys spending time on the Russian River and hanging out with his partner and cat.
Daly Barnett is a staff technologist at the EFF. She is also an artist, activist, and community organizer. Before arriving to EFF, she was the founder of t4tech, a trans forward tech collective based in NYC. She is also a part of Hacking Hustling, a sex workers advocacy organization, where her title is Witch.
Molly Buckley is the Frank Stanton Legal Fellow on EFF’s civil liberties team, where she works on First Amendment cases. During law school, Molly worked on free speech, privacy, surveillance, and transparency issues as an intern at EFF (!) and at the Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty and National Security program, and on disability and workers’ rights issues in UT’s Advanced Civil Rights and Transnational Workers’ Rights Clinics. She was also Vice President of the Human Rights Law Society and a National Security Law Fellow with the Strauss Center for International Security and Law. Previously, Molly was a paralegal in the ACLU’s National Security Project, an elected bargaining representative of the ACLU Support Staff Union, and program assistant to the Social Science Research Council’s Anxieties of Democracy program. Molly holds a J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law and a B.A. in media studies and political science from Vassar College. She loves playing in her band, gardening in the absurd Texas heat, and making her own herbal concoctions.
Bill Budington is a long-time activist, cryptography enthusiast, and a Senior Staff Technologist on EFF's Public Interest Technology team. His research has been featured in the The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, and cited by the US Congress. He is the lead developer of Cover Your Tracks, led HTTPS Everywhere from 2015-2018, and has contributed to projects like Let's Encrypt and SecureDrop. Bill has spoken at USENIX Enigma (2016), HOPE (2014, 2016, 2018, 2020, 2022), CCC (2017), InfoSec Southwest (2017), ShmooCon (2019, 2020), and other infosec conferences. Bill's primary interest lies in dismantling systems of oppression, building up collaborative alternatives and, to borrow a phrase from Zapatismo, fighting for a 'world in which many worlds fit.' He loves hacker spaces and getting together with other techies to tinker, code, share, and build the technological commons.
Nicole has been supporting EFF's fundraising efforts since 2013. She originally led the major donor fundraising program, the organizational membership program, and planned EFF’s external events. In 2020, she became the Director of Donor Relations, focusing soley on EFF’s major donor program which included the creation and implementation of EFF’s Giving Societies. She now plans and executes annual campaigns while also leading two of the three Giving Societies: the MXM Society, EFF’s community of top-level major donors; and the Lighthouse Society, key supporters who have named EFF in their estate planning.
With over two decades of nonprofit experience, Nicole has managed a wide range of social justice-focused philanthropic efforts. At Tides Foundation, she led the grantmaking programs of individual donors and offered customized programmatic services to institutional funders. She also supported fiscally sponsored projects at both the Tides Center and the San Francisco Parks Trust. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, making pickles, and frolicking with baby goats.
Kim helps support the work of EFF's Engineering and Design team. She was previously on EFF's international team and managed the Surveillance Self-Defense project and content localization. She holds a B.A. in Journalism and Mass Communication and a B.A. in French from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In her free time, Kim enjoys running, hand lettering, and crossword puzzles.
Andrea came to EFF with years of experience in accounting. Prior to joining EFF, she was an Airline Accounts Specialist for MSAS Cargo International. Before that, she was a Bookkeeper for Spectrel International Corp. She likes to travel almost as much as she enjoys playing with the pets in our office.
Cindy Cohn is the Executive Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. From 2000-2015 she served as EFF’s Legal Director as well as its General Counsel. Ms. Cohn first became involved with EFF in 1993, when EFF asked her to serve as the outside lead attorney in Bernstein v. Dept. of Justice, the successful First Amendment challenge to the U.S. export restrictions on cryptography.
Ms. Cohn has been named to TheNonProfitTimes 2020 Power & Influence TOP 50 list, honoring 2020's movers and shakers. In 2018, Forbes included Ms. Cohn as one of America's Top 50 Women in Tech. The National Law Journal named Ms. Cohn one of 100 most influential lawyers in America in 2013, noting: "[I]f Big Brother is watching, he better look out for Cindy Cohn." She was also named in 2006 for "rushing to the barricades wherever freedom and civil liberties are at stake online." In 2007 the National Law Journal named her one of the 50 most influential women lawyers in America. In 2010 the Intellectual Property Section of the State Bar of California awarded her its Intellectual Property Vanguard Award and in 2012 the Northern California Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists awarded her the James Madison Freedom of Information Award.
Paige is the Senior Speech and Privacy Activist at EFF, where she focuses on the fulfillment of civil liberties and corporate threats to speech and privacy online. Passionate about highlighting how minoritised communities are stifled by state surveillance and corporate restrictions, she has worked with governments and activists across the globe to collaboratively facilitate change.
Prior to joining EFF, Paige led advocacy and campaigns at the Copenhagen-based Freemuse, an organisation defending the right to artistic and creative freedom; and worked as Press Manager for the Berlin-based Disruption Network Lab who operate at the intersection of politics, technology, and society. She has also worked for the Deputy Speaker in the UK Parliament, and with Orchid Project, who advocate for an end to female genital cutting. Paige holds a Master’s degree in Law from Leeds Law School, Master’s degree in Political Science from the University of Copenhagen, and a Bachelor’s degree in Politics and History from Brunel University London.
Sophia Cope is a Senior Staff Attorney on the Electronic Frontier Foundation's civil liberties team, working on a variety of free speech and privacy issues. Key topics include border searches of electronic devices, surveillance and human rights, the right to record the police, Section 230, and student speech and student privacy online. She has been a civil liberties attorney for nearly two decades and has experience in both litigation and policy advocacy. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, Guardian, Slate, and Huffington Post.
Prior to joining EFF, Sophia spent eight years in Washington, D.C. She worked at the Newspaper Association of America (now the News Media Alliance) on freedom of the press and digital media issues, with a focus on protecting journalists' confidential sources. She advocated for a federal shield law, a warrant-for-content requirement under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, and improvements to the Freedom of Information Act. She also wrote a chapter for a book published by the American Bar Association entitled "Whistleblowers, Leaks and the Media: The First Amendment and National Security" and spoke out against NSA surveillance.
Prior to NAA, Sophia worked at the Center for Democracy & Technology on a variety of civil liberties and human rights issues related to the Internet and technology, including the regulation of content on the Internet and broadcast television, and the privacy implications of government identification programs. She also worked on the development and launch of the Global Network Initiative.
Before moving to Washington, D.C., Sophia litigated at the First Amendment Project in Oakland, California, where she defended an environmental activist against a frivolous lawsuit and a video journalist against a federal subpoena seeking his unpublished footage. She also counseled clients on how to obtain greater access to public records and public meetings.
Sophia was an adjunct professor of media law for nearly four years, teaching Washington, D.C.-area undergraduate communication and journalism students. She is on the boards of the Public Participation Project and Open Vallejo. She is a graduate of Santa Clara University and University of California College of the Law, San Francisco (UC Law SF, formerly UC Hastings). She is proud to be a native Californian.
Keri is a Senior Staff Accountant at EFF. Her goal in life is to become an eccentric old lady when she grows up. She believes that just like bacon, anything goes with combat boots. When she is not working, she enjoys yoga, taking spin classes, watching independent film, writing haiku and playing fetch with her cat. Keri loves anything that is pink and sparkly and squeals like a six year old when she sees a puppy. She is known to wear party dresses, flowers in her hair and yes, combat boots.
Andrew’s work focuses on surveillance, privacy, and cybersecurity. As Surveillance Litigation Director, he leads EFF's legal work on issues at the intersection of technology and privacy through lawsuits and amicus briefs in state and federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. He also leads EFF’s Coders' Rights Project, which provides representation for security researchers, journalists, and hackers, who often face unwarranted legal threats and scrutiny for their work. Representative cases include challenging the constitutionality of national security letters (NSLs); working to establish that the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination protects against the compelled decryption of electronic devices; and limiting overbroad anti-hacking laws such as the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). He also writes and speaks about EFF’s legislative and advocacy priorities including FISA Section 702, anti-encryption proposals, location tracking and other novel surveillance techniques. He received his undergraduate and law degrees from Harvard University.
As EFF's Creative Director, Hugh D'Andrade helps craft EFF's image by designing our websites, t-shirts, stickers, white papers, as well as the murals that grace our stairwell. Hugh has worked with EFF in various capacities since 2007, and is the artist behind some of EFF's most iconic images. All the work Hugh does for EFF is CC-licensed and can be downloaded, re-used and re-mixed from the EFF Flickr page. When Hugh isn't working for EFF, he creates illustrations for young adult novels, rock posters, magazines, and is currently working on a graphic novel. You can see more of his work on his personal website.
Daniel works to give EFF’s generous donors the best experience possible.
Before joining EFF he worked for a number of other cool nonprofits, including protecting the earth from asteroids with the B612 Foundation, making the world safer for bicyclists as Campaign Manager for America Bikes, building houses with Habitat for Humanity, and teaching children about philanthropy with Common Cents NY.
He has an MPA with a Certificate in Non-Profit Management from the Evans School at the University of Washington and a BA in Sociology from Amherst College. He has been to every movie theater in San Francisco.
She kept showing up to the Magic the Gathering draft parties.
Kelly invokes her passion for all things numbers as EFF's Chief Financial Officer. Prior to joining the staff, she was a frequent volunteer at EFF events while honing her finance and accounting skills at a large public accounting firm. When her head is not buried deep in spreadsheets, she enjoys puzzles and games of most varieties, and attends local sporting events.
Lisa Femia is a Staff Attorney on EFF’s civil liberties team. Her work focuses on surveillance, privacy, free speech, and the impact of technology on civil rights and civil liberties. Lisa came to EFF from Hogan Lovells US LLP, where she maintained a robust pro bono practice centered on democracy reform, criminal justice, and civil rights. Prior to joining Hogan, Lisa worked on privacy and government surveillance issues as a clinic student and post-graduate intern at the Brennan Center for Justice. Lisa additionally served as an NYU International Law and Human Rights Fellow while in law school. In that role, she advocated for press freedom and media rights in Kampala, Uganda.
Prior to law school, Lisa worked as the government relations manager of a national nonprofit foundation in Washington, D.C. Lisa holds a J.D. from New York University School of Law and a bachelor's degree from Princeton University.
*Admitted in New York and Washington, D.C., only; not admitted in California
Cara focuses on trademark, copyright, and free speech issues as a staff attorney on EFF's intellectual property team. She also works on EFF's Coders' Rights Project, assisting programmers, developers, and researchers who are helping to build a safer future for us all. Cara came to EFF from O'Melveny & Myers LLP, where her practice focused on trademark litigation and counseling. As a law student, Cara worked on First and Fourth Amendment issues at the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, the New York Civil Liberties Union, and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, and she was awarded a fellowship in the Arthur Garfield Hays Civil Liberties Program at NYU School of Law. Cara holds a J.D. from New York University and a B.A. in linguistics from Northwestern University.
Eva Galperin is EFF's Director of Cybersecurity. Prior to 2007, when she came to work for EFF, Eva worked in security and IT in Silicon Valley and earned degrees in Political Science and International Relations from SFSU. Her work is primarily focused on providing privacy and security for vulnerable populations around the world. To that end, she has applied the combination of her political science and technical background to everything from organizing EFF's Tor Relay Challenge, to writing privacy and security training materials (including Surveillance Self Defense and the Digital First Aid Kit), and publishing research on malware in Syria, Vietnam, Lebanon, and Kazakhstan. Since 2018, she has worked on addressing the digital privacy and security needs of survivors or domestic abuse. She is also a co-founder of the Coalition Against Stalkerware.
Gennie is the Managing Director of Technology at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, where she oversees the organization's Engineering & Design, Public Interest Technology, and Technical Operations teams. Her research and writing primarily focuses on consumer privacy and security, with an emphasis on third-party tracking, platform policy, and secure messaging, as well as content moderation and open access.
Gennie is also an Affiliate Associate Professor at the University of Washington Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering and serves on the program committees of several computer security research venues. Prior to joining EFF, she was a Henry Luce Scholar in Laos and Thailand, and earned a Master of Library and Information Science from the University of Washington Information School.
Brendan is a legal fellow on EFF's civil liberties team, where he works on free speech, surveillance, & privacy issues. During law school, Brendan interned with the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, Center for Investigative Reporting, Center for Media & Democracy, & Federal Defender, & was a Student Attorney with the MacArthur Justice Center. Brendan holds a J.D. from Northwestern Pritzker School of Law & a B.A. from UC Irvine.
*Seeking admission in New York—not admitted in California
Starchy came here to preserve uptime, fight for your rights online, make terrible music, and chew bubblegum, and he's all out of bubblegum.
Will is a Staff Technologist on the Public Interest Technology team. He's currently developing Certbot and has two perfect little cats, Kira and Dax.
David Greene, Senior Staff Attorney and Civil Liberties Director, has significant experience litigating First Amendment issues in state and federal trial and appellate courts. David currently serves on the steering committee of the Free Expression Network, the governing committee of the ABA Forum on Communications Law, and on advisory boards for several arts and free speech organizations across the country. David is also an adjunct professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law, where he teaches classes in First Amendment and media law and was formerly an instructor in the journalism department at San Francisco State University. He has written and lectured extensively on many areas of First Amendment Law, including as a contributor to the International Encyclopedia of Censorship. Before joining EFF, David was for twelve years the Executive Director and Lead Staff Counsel for First Amendment Project, where he worked with EFF on numerous cases including Bunner v. DVDCCA. David also previously served as program director of the National Campaign for Freedom of Expression where he was the principal contributor and general editor of the NCFE Quarterly and the principal author of the NCFE Handbook to Understanding, Preparing for and Responding to Challenges to your Freedom of Artistic Expression. He also practiced with the firms Bryan Cave LLP and Hancock, Rothert & Bunshoft. Way back in 1998, he was a founding member, with David Sobel and Shari Steele, of the Internet Free Expression Alliance. He is a 1991 graduate of Duke University School of Law.
David's work has been recognized by California Lawyer magazine as a 2013 California Lawyer Attorney of the Year, and by the SPJ Northern California as the recipient of its 2007 James Madison Freedom of information Award for Legal Counsel. He was also awarded The Hon. Ira A. Brown Adjunct Faculty Award by USF Law School in 2012.
Matthew Guariglia is a policy analyst working on issues of surveillance and policing at the local, state, and federal level. He received a PhD in history at the University of Connecticut where his research focused on the intersection of race, immigration, U.S. imperialism, and policing in New York City. He is the co-editor of The Essential Kerner Commission Report (Liveright, 2021) and his book Police in the Empire City is forthcoming from Duke University Press and his bylines have appeared in NBC News, the Washington Post, Slate, Motherboard, and the Freedom of Information-centered outlet Muckrock. Matthew is an affiliated scholar at University of California, San Francisco School of Law and serves as an editor of "Disciplining the City," a series on the history of urban policing and incarceration at the Urban History Association's blog The Metropole.
Karen Gullo is an award-winning former journalist working as an analyst and senior media relations specialist at EFF, collaborating with the organization's lawyers, activists, and technologists on strategic communications and messaging to amplify their amazing work defending civil liberties in the digital world. As a writer, editor, and former reporter with over two decades of experience at Bloomberg News and Associated Press in San Francisco, Washington D.C., and New York, Karen helps develop EFF's responses to media inquiries, and writes press statements and releases and op-eds about EFF's advocacy of online privacy and free speech, encryption, Fourth Amendment rights, copyright abuse, and much more. As an analyst, Karen writes blog posts and contributes to white papers on subjects ranging from student privacy and mass surveillance to private censorship, the First Amendment, and international surveillance and data protection treaties. She has worked on EFF activism projects holding social media platforms accountable for bad content moderation practices, exposing Amazon Ring's cozy relationships with local law enforcement, and pushing for the inclusion of human rights safeguards in the Council of Europe's revised Budapest Convention. She is also a contributing writer for feminism website SeismicSisters.com. Prior to joining EFF, Karen was a reporter at Bloomberg News from 2002 to 2015, where she broke stories about Google’s legal challenge to FBI national security letters. Before Bloomberg, Karen was a reporter for the Associated Press in New York and Washington, covering politics—including the 2000 presidential election—the Justice Department, campaign finance, federal contracting practices, and much more as a member of an investigative reporting team. Karen is the recipient of national and local journalism awards, including the Jesse H. Neal Award Business Journalism Award and the San Francisco Peninsula Press Club’s excellence in journalism awards. She grew up in Oak Park, Illinois, and resides in San Francisco.
Before EFF Lena worked in journalism, international development and in the tech industry. She studied the emergence of Open Source communities in Latin America, and later worked as a trainer, qualitative researcher, and media producer with Human Rights groups in the field. She has worked as a Product Manager and an Engineering Manager for different tech companies and non-profits. At EFF, she works with the Engineering and Design team on internal tools and external-facing web applications. She's also part of the AI working group.
As a member of the Development team, Tierney supports EFF's organizational membership program, event sponsorships, and grant writing and reporting.
Her background is in art and technology, with past practice, research, and writing on interactivity, expanded cinema, information art, and culture jamming. She believes technology is our most potent means of self-expression in the 21st century, and incorporates this passion into raising critical funds for EFF. Previously, Tierney worked in Northern and Southern California museums and arts nonprofits supporting exhibitions, development, and cultural planning. Tierney holds a BFA in Media Arts from CCA, an MA in Art and Curatorial Practice in the Public Sphere from USC, and an MA in Visual & Cultural Studies at the University of Rochester.
Alexis works to keep the networks strong and encrypted by managing the Certbot project. She researches an intersection of issues on digital rights, encryption, and consumer technology. She believes in an open and equitable web through encouraging local tech literacy, educating other engineers, and advocating for better and stronger tech policy.
She has spoken about user privacy, digital identity, cloud security, open technology standards, and government & corporate surveillance. She has worked in web development and application security for 10 years.
Certifications: Security+, GFACT, GCLD, GPCS, GCSA
Mei joined EFF's development team as the first Associate Director of Institution Support to oversee and grow the grants, organizational membership, and institutional sponsorship programs. She brings over eight years of experience in successfully growing grants revenue at Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN) and the Oakland Asian Cultural Center (OACC). She has a PhD in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management (ESPM) from UC Berkeley, with a focus on environmental justice and historical and current factors that shape how women of color in the US experience and utilize city parks. She served on the Board of Directors at Bike East Bay in 2020-21 and was an Oakland Cultural Space Ambassador in 2019. Mei has a BS in Biology and Biotechnology with minors in Psychology and International Studies from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). She has been certified as a Red Cross Water Safety Instructor and is currently a certified Lifeguard. She has lived in many regions of the US, and especially loves the cultural diversity, geographic variety, and many microclimates in the SF Bay Area. She has a pattern of attraction to organizations that rely on acronyms in their names, and is excited to support EFF's crucial work in the areas of digital privacy, free speech, government transparency, and innovation.
Jacob is a lead developer on Let's Encrypt, the free and automated Certificate Authority. He also works on EFF's Encrypt the Web initiative and helps maintain the HTTPS Everywhere browser extension.
Prior to working at EFF, Jacob was on Twitter's anti-spam and security teams. On the security team, he implemented HTTPS-by-default with forward secrecy, key pinning, HSTS, and CSP. On anti-spam, he deployed new machine-learned models to detect and block spam in realtime. Before Twitter, he worked at Google, variously on the maps, transit, and shopping teams.
Saira Hussain is a Senior Staff Attorney focusing on litigation at the intersection of racial and immigrant justice, government surveillance, and technology. Previously, Saira was a Staff Attorney in the Criminal Justice Reform Program at Advancing Justice - Asian Law Caucus (ALC), where she focused on disentangling federal immigration enforcement from local law enforcement through policy advocacy, litigation, and coalition-building. She started at ALC as a Berkeley Law Public Interest Fellow in the Immigrant Rights' Program, representing immigrants in deportation proceedings. Saira received her J.D. from UC Berkeley School of Law and her B.A. from UC Berkeley. She speaks Spanish and Urdu, and is an avid baker and yoga enthusiast.
Rebecca Jeschke is EFF's Chief Operating Officer, helping to ensure that EFF can do its best work to fight for digital rights now and into the future. Rebecca started with EFF back in 2005 as EFF's Media Relations Director and a Digital Rights Analyst, fielding press requests on a broad range of issues including privacy, free speech, and intellectual property matters. Her media appearances include Fox News, CNN, NPR, USA Today, New York Times, Washington Post, Associated Press, and Harper's Magazine, and she has been a presenter at South by Southwest. Before joining EFF, Rebecca worked in television and Internet news for more than ten years, including stints as an Internet producer for CBS 5 in San Francisco and as a senior supervising producer for TechTV. She has also been a travel guide editor, an English teacher in the Dominican Republic, and a worker on a "slime line" gutting fish in Alaska. Rebecca is on the Board of Directors of Alameda Family Services.
Aaron directs grassroots outreach for EFF's Development Team. He started in nonprofit development by managing membership at the New England Aquarium in Boston, and in donor operations at the Perkins School for the Blind. Upon returning to wonderful California, Aaron had the privilege of growing EFF's membership program for over eight years before becoming the team director. Aaron's interest in human rights and civil liberties crystallised during his years working with visitors at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles' Little Toyko, which educates the public about the unconstitutional incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII. He still carries the spirit of "gaman" perseverance everywhere he goes. He enjoys 70s and/or artsy foreign horror, cake sculpting, and generally making things out of other things.
Maggie is the Donor Operations and Logistics Manager at EFF. Since 2012, she's been thrilled to go to events around the country sharing information out about EFF's work, and manage data processing systems on the Development team. As ever, she is here to help support the future of the digital rights movement with all you activists, makers, hackers, and folks passionate about the future of the Internet.
In addition to focusing on student privacy, surveillance, and free speech issues, Jason ensures that EFF's campaigns are seen by as many people as possible. Before joining EFF, Jason managed marketing strategy and content for a software company that helps non-programmers learn to code, and advertising and marketing analytics for a student loan startup. Jason received his BA in English and Philosophy from Kent State University and an M.F.A. in creative writing from The University of the South. He tries daily to apply advice from his professor Sam Pickering, the inspiration for Robin Williams’ character in Dead Poets Society: “Take out the extra words. Make it go quicker.”
Thorin is the Security and Privacy Activist at EFF, where he focuses on providing practical advice to protecting online security, including handling much of Surveillance Self-Defense. Before joining EFF, Thorin covered privacy and security for Wirecutter and occasionally at The New York Times, writing the bulk of Wirecutter's security how-tos, explainers, and guides. Prior to that, he covered topics ranging from password managers to burritos at Lifehacker, and wrote extensively about electronics DIY projects.
Laura comes to us with an eclectic history of working in various non-profits, and with a Masters degree in Pastoral Ministry. Rather than becoming a Woman of The Cloth, she now supports the good works of EFF by keeping the day to day things that the organization needs to keep running, including making sure that staff never run out of coconut water.
Amy is part of the Human Resources team at EFF. She uses her inordinate fondness for documentation to support EFF staff in their endeavors. When not working, she can be found cheering at baseball games, crafting, and making culinary creations in the kitchen.
Beryl Lipton, Investigative Researcher, focuses her work on government transparency, law enforcement surveillance technology, and other uses of technology by government actors. She has extensive experience using Freedom of Information laws and large-scale public records campaigns in her research.
At EFF, Beryl supports the Atlas of Surveillance, The Foilies, The Catalog of Carceral Surveillance, among other projects. She enjoys teaching others about the strengths and limitations of public records laws and discussing the potential and real harms of the surveillance state.
Prior to her work with EFF in 2020, she spent seven years as a projects editor at MuckRock, where she focused on prison privatization and other public-private partnerships. She is a board member for Spare Change News, the Boston area street newspaper, and contributes to Gannett New York, where she has spearheaded the collection and release of police misconduct records throughout New York state.
Photo credit: CC BY-NC-SA Cato Institute
Chao is a legislative associate at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. He assists in EFF's advocacy for a free, open, and accessible internet in state legislatures and Congress.
He has a B.A. from U.C. Berkeley.
Jennifer Lynch is EFF's General Counsel. Through this role, she advises EFF on matters related to 501(c)(3) status, employment, contracts, lobbying, immigration, IP, defamation, and just about any other legal issue that might arise for the leading nonprofit defending digital privacy, free speech, and innovation. She also serves as Secretary to EFF's Board of Directors.
Before becoming GC, Jennifer was EFF's Surveillance Litigation Director and led the organization's legal work challenging government abuse of search and seizure technologies through litigation in state and federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. Jennifer also founded EFF's Street Level Surveillance Project, which informs advocates, defense attorneys, and decisionmakers about new police tools. In 2017, the First Amendment Coalition awarded her its Free Speech and Open Government Award for her years-long litigation against the Los Angeles Police and Sheriff's Departments seeking access to Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) records and for setting new precedent in California's public records law. In 2019, the Daily Journal named her to its annual list of Top 100 Lawyers in California, and in 2021, the Daily Journal further named her to its list of top lawyers of the decade for her work "guarding privacy in an over-policed world." Jennifer has written influential white papers on forensic genetic genealogy searches, law enforcement use of face recognition, and biometric data collection in immigrant communities. She has also published articles on forensic genetic genealogy searches with the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) and on suspicionless police searches of consumer data as part of the Hoover Institution's Aegis Paper Series. She speaks frequently at legal and technical conferences as well as to the general public on technologies like location tracking, biometrics, and AI, and has testified on facial recognition before committees in the Senate and House of Representatives. She is regularly consulted as an expert on these subjects and others by major and technical news media. Jennifer attended U.C. Berkeley for undergrad and law school and clerked for Judge A. Howard Matz (now retired) in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Jennifer was an art major and photographer before the creativity of the law sucked her in.
Vernita is the Executive Team Coordinator for Electronic Frontier Foundation's Executive Team. Prior to joining EFF, she worked for an educational non-profit for 10 1/2 years. When not problem solving for the Exec Team, you will find her creating elaborate meals, rooting for all East Bay Pro Teams, watching Hallmark Movies, and supporting all things Disney.
As investigations director, Dave researches and writes about surveillance technology, government transparency, press freedoms, the U.S.-Mexico border and immigration enforcement, prisoner rights, and other digital rights issues. He leads the Atlas of Surveillance project in partnership with the Reynolds School of Journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno, where he is a Reynolds Scholar in Residence.
Aaron litigates free speech, anonymity, privacy, government surveillance and transparency cases. Before joining EFF in 2015, Aaron was in Washington, D.C. where he worked on speech, privacy, and freedom of information issues at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and the Institute for Public Representation at Georgetown Law. Aaron graduated from Berkeley Law, where he worked for EFF while a student in the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic. He also holds an LLM from Georgetown Law. Prior to law school, Aaron was a journalist at the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson, Arizona. He received his undergraduate degree in journalism and English from the University of Arizona, where he met his amazing wife, Ashley. They have two children.
José is a longtime trainer and agitator. You may remember him from such workshops as How Not to Talk to Law Enforcement and Grand Jury Resistance for the Soul.
As a former Capitol Hill staffer with over 10 years experience as a legislative staffer, India’s main job is to make sure that the laws of the land don't suck the life out of the internet. India’s passion has always been for good public policy, and she’s excited to be using skills developed during past legislative and appropriations battles to fight for encryption, for consumer privacy, and civil liberties in the digital realm.
Corynne McSherry is the Legal Director at EFF, specializing in intellectual property, open access, and free speech issues. Her favorite cases involve defending online fair use, political expression, and the public domain. As a litigator, she has represented the Internet Archive, Professor Lawrence Lessig, Public.Resource.Org, the Yes Men, and a dancing baby, among others. She was named one of California's Top Entertainment Lawyers and AmLaw's "Litigator of the Week" for her work on Lenz v. Universal. Her policy work focuses on copyright, generative AI, and best practices for online expression. She has testified before Congress about the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and Section 230. Corynne comments regularly on digital rights issues and has been quoted in a variety of outlets, including NPR, CBS News, Fox News, the New York Times, Billboard, the Wall Street Journal, and Rolling Stone. Prior to joining EFF, Corynne was a litigator at the law firm of Bingham McCutchen, LLP. Corynne has a B.A. from the University of California at Santa Cruz, a Ph.D from the University of California at San Diego, and a J.D. from Stanford Law School. While in law school, Corynne published Who Owns Academic Work?: Battling for Control of Intellectual Property (Harvard University Press, 2001).
Alex is a born-and-raised San Franciscan with a nonprofit and arts-focused professional background who is extremely proud to have joined the fighting ranks of EFF. She is here to help our awesome donors and supporters have the best experience possible. Outside of EFF, Alex moonlights as a performing artist and voice actor, and enjoys creating and consuming theater, film, music and vegan snacks. She also likes cats. A lot.
Alexei works on Privacy Badger. He previously led product/engineering of Ghostery, another popular browser privacy addon.
Alexy has spent more than a decade using web technologies to solve problems. He is a strong believer in using computing to empower others.
Previously he worked on projects supporting nonprofits and educational institutions, from simple sites to complicated workflows.
Currently, he works on EFF's donor database and web applications.
As Associate Director of Community Organizing, Rory (they/them) coordinates EFF's support of local advocacy groups. Much of this work is done through the grassroots information-sharing network, the Electronic Frontier Alliance (EFA).
Prior to joining the EFF, Rory studied activist pedagogy and adolescent use of social media as a doctoral student of psychology. As a student, instructor, and researcher, they advocated for student and worker privacy, open science, and open education on campus. They were also active in several New York City community projects like CyPurr Collective, an EFA member group focused on accessible digital security trainings.
Rory believes in the potential for digital technology to support more autonomous communities and advance social equity. As such, they connect these principles to a variety of topic areas such as decentralization, Extended Reality, and Right to Repair.
Olivia is Arizona-born and recently relocated to San Francisco (for the second time) from Portland, Oregon. She's currently managing the awesome team that does all things donor operations related and is excited to be a part of such a unique and cutting edge organization. Her background is in non-profit fundraising and she has worked for places such as Oregon Public Broadcasting, Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, and the Portland Japanese Garden. When she isn't at work delving into databases and bribing the office dogs with treats to love her-she is hiking, camping, generally being outside (a lifetime of many triple-digit days will do that to a person) and enjoying time with her goofy dog, Hank. All while also trying to bribe dogs with treats to love her.
Shirin uses design and educational strategy to empower people to protect their privacy and promote equity and accessibility. Shirin's work includes web design, graphics, usability, user research, instructional design and the occasional videos for EFF projects. On the content end, Shirin also works on digital security and security education, as well as dark patterns and design legislation. In their free time, Shirin likes to write and make movies.
Allison heads up the fundraising team at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Prior to joining EFF, she spent much of her career fundraising for global health, development, and disaster response organizations including Doctors Without Borders, Mercy Corps, PATH, and END Fund. Allison received her undergraduate degree from Brown University and masters from Columbia. When not defending civil liberties in the digital world, she can be found in Portland, OR with her husband, children and dogs. A foodie and world traveler, Allison loves reading and feels a particular sense of accomplishment when she introduced people to new beloved books.
Madeleine is the legal support manager on the legal team. Prior to joining EFF she worked in practices that represented consumers in complex class action litigation. She has a B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin and an M.A. from Camberwell College of Art, London.
Joe Mullin is a senior policy analyst at EFF, where he works on patents, encryption, platform liability, and free expression online. Before joining EFF, Joe worked as a reporter covering legal affairs for the technology website Ars Technica, and American Lawyer’s magazine group. Earlier in his journalism career, Joe wrote for The Associated Press and The Seattle Times. He has a bachelors degree in history and a masters in journalism, both from the University of California at Berkeley. Outside of his work at EFF, Joe enjoys trail running and cycling.
Babette Ngene is the Director of the Public Interest Technology team at EFF. She provides strategic oversight for EFF's technological initiatives, ranging from cybersecurity to the development and deployment of open-source technologies dedicated to safeguarding and defending rights in the digital space.
Before joining EFF, Babette drew from her extensive experience in both the private and public sectors, where she focused on overseeing digital rights and digital safety initiatives in over 50 countries across the globe. She is an expert in leading and managing initiatives that foster diversity and inclusion in the digital rights sphere by engaging new representatives and organizations from the global majority. She has also played a pivotal role in introducing and implementing digital rights programs across four regions spanning more than 20 countries, with a primary focus on defending and protecting the rights of at-risk communities. Babette is an active speaker at digital rights forums, including IGF, RightsCon, DRIFT, and FIFAFRICA.
Babette holds a master's degree in international law from American University and hails from Yaounde, Cameroon.
As the Intake Coordinator here at EFF, Haley is the first point of contact for legal assistance and general information about EFF for the public. Prior to EFF, she's worked as a researcher and writer for various local, national, and international human rights organizations. She’s also a big fan of live music, good food, other people’s dogs, and traveling far and wide around the planet.
Jennifer Pinsof is a staff attorney on EFF’s civil liberties team. Her work focuses on free speech, privacy, and government transparency in the digital age. Prior to joining EFF, Jennifer was a legal fellow at the Knight First Amendment Institute, a clinical lecturer at Yale Law School’s Media Freedom & Information Access Clinic, and a litigation associate at Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Before law school, she worked at a software company specializing in data analytics. Jennifer holds a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School and a B.A. from Cornell University.
Erica works to explain and defend encryption, so that it can be accessible and strong for all who need it.
She writes and speaks about encryption in practice, including what people need from secure messaging providers, what the next generation of encryption in the cloud might look like, and how it needs to continue to be protected by law. She also develops the Let's Encrypt client Certbot, which makes it easy for people who run websites to turn on https, keeping their users private and secure against network-based attackers.
Previously, she worked on EFF's net neutrality project, writing technical filings and opinion pieces and organizing technologists from the networking industry to speak up for technical accuracy in policy decisions.
Cooper Quintin is a security researcher and senior public interest technologist with the EFF Threat Lab. and board member of Open Archive. He has worked on projects including Privacy Badger, Canary Watch, and analysis of state sponsored malware campaigns such as Dark Caracal. Cooper has given talks about security research at prestigious security conferences including Black Hat, DEFCON, Enigma Conference, and ReCon about issues ranging from IMSI Catcher detection to fem tech privacy issues to newly discovered APTs. He has also been published or quoted in publications including: The New York Times, Reuters, NPR, CNN, and Al Jazeera. Cooper has given security trainings for activists, non profit workers, and vulnerable populations around the world. He previously worked building websites for nonprofits, including Greenpeace, Adbusters, and the Chelsea Manning Support Network. Cooper was also an editor and contributor to the hacktivist journal, "Hack this Zine." In his spare time he enjoys making music, visualizing a solar-punk communitarian future, and playing with his kids.
Before joining EFF, Josh served for six years as communications director, deputy chief of staff, and senior advisor to Congressman Eric Swalwell, a member of the House Judiciary, Intelligence, and Homeland Security committees and co-chair of the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee. He helped shape the message on a wide range of legislative priorities, including gun violence, student loan debt, and protecting our democracy, as well as through the Trump-Russia investigations, the COVID-19 pandemic, and two presidential impeachments, including the Congressman’s role as an Impeachment Manager. He also served as communications director for Rep. Swalwell’s presidential campaign in 2019. Earlier, Josh was a journalist for almost 24 years: five years covering City Hall for the Express-Times in Easton, PA, and then 19 years covering state and national politics for the Bay Area News Group, where his byline appeared in the Oakland Tribune, San Jose Mercury News, and other Bay Area newspapers. While at the Bay Area News Group, he created the Political Blotter blog; was a lead reporter on the award-winning Chauncey Bailey Project, investigating the circumstances around the 2007 assassination of Bailey, a journalist and former colleague; and was a frequent guest on San Francisco public television station KQED’s public affairs programs. He’s a Queens, NY, native and an Eagle Scout who earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri.
Katitza Rodriguez is EFF's Policy Director for Global Privacy. She concentrates on comparative policy of global privacy issues, with special emphasis on emerging technology, augmented and virtual reality, and cross-border data flows. Katitza's work also focuses on cybersecurity and government access to data held by the private sector at the intersection of international human rights law and standards. Katitza also supervises EFF's growing Latin American team. She was an advisor to the UN Internet Governance Forum (2009-2010). KIn 2018, CNET named Katitza one of the 20 most influential Latinos in technology in the United States. In 2014, she was also named one of "The heroes in the fight to save the Internet." Katitza also seats the board of Article19-Mexicana and Central-American office.
Before joining EFF in April 2010, Katitza was director of the international privacy program at the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington D.C., where amongst other things, she worked on The Privacy and Human Rights Report, an international survey of privacy laws and developments in more than 6o countries. Katitza is well known to many in global civil society and in international policy venues for her work at the U.N. Internet Governance Forum and her pivotal role in the creation and ongoing success of the Civil Society Information Society Advisory Council at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, for which she served as the civil society liaison while at EPIC from 2008 to March 2010. Katitza holds a Bachelor in Law degree from the University of Lima, Peru. Katitza's twitter handle is @txitua.
Sara is the receptionist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, spending most of her time answering phone calls and helping guests that come to the office. When not at her desk, she helps with maintenance and upkeep around the building. She also spends a lot of her time tending to the plants around the office, making sure they are as happy as they can be.
As the membership advocate, Christian helps and leads many aspects of EFF's membership program. From finding new opportunities to connect with EFF's members to ensuring that they are kept up-to-date with EFF's work, he plans to make membership the best it can be. When not hanging out with supporters, Christian enjoys consuming all things Spider-Man, loving on his cats and dogs, and diving into various video games.
Still ain't slept, watching law and order and eating handfuls of coco puffs out the box.
Artemis Schatzkin has worked on many of EFF's websites, such as Who Has Your Face?, Cover Your Tracks, this very site you're on, and many more. She also developed EFF's virtual reality site, Spot the Surveillance.
She has a parallel life as a visual artist.
Christoph Schmon is EFF’s International Policy Director. He bridges EFF’s domestic priorities with the organization’s international policy strategy and helps to make sure that digital rights are respected and enforced beyond the United States borders. Christoph has deep expertise in EU policy-making and he represents EFF’s advocacy for a free internet and online privacy before European lawmakers in Brussels.
Christoph explores the tension between liability frameworks for digital platforms and user rights. His recent work focuses on the EU’s Digital Services Act Package and platform regulatory trends around the globe.
Prior to working for EFF, he led the Consumer Rights Team at the EU Consumer Organisation (BEUC) and was appointed member of several expert groups to the EU Commission in Brussels where he advocated for a good public consumer policy. Christoph has litigation experience and holds a Ph.D in law. He was a researcher at several universities and teaches and writes about consumer law, digital rights, and private international law.
Ross is EFF's first Senior Fellow for Decentralization. He is a policy technologist that has dealt with a wide range of issues, from net neutrality to online surveillance, over the course of his career. His personal passion has always been decentralization, however. Prior to EFF he worked at New America's Open Technology Institute. He has also worked in the past at the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Computer and Communications Industry Association, and in Congress in various capacities.
Ross has a J.D. from American University and a B.A. in computer science from Brandeis University.
Adam joined EFF in 2015. He advocates before courts and legislatures against surveillance, censorship, and discrimination.
He has represented travelers subjected to warrantless smartphone searches by border officers, protesters against police violence subjected to camera network surveillance, immigrant advocates opposed to their local sheriff sending license plate location data to ICE, electricity customers subjected to dragnet police smart meter surveillance, dissidents censored in government social media, and customers of phone companies that unlawfully sold location data. He has filed amicus briefs addressing the right to record on-duty police, face surveillance by corporations of consumers, internet banishment and perpetual location-tracking of court-involved people, anonymous online speech, overbroad "cyber-stalking" laws, and expungement of FBI records. He has enforced public records requests for prison data on parolee race (which EFF’s clients used to develop an AI tool to identify improper parole denials), and the Hemisphere phone surveillance program. He advocates for privacy legislation to limit data surveillance by government and by corporations.
Previously, Adam worked at the ACLU of Illinois for 19 years, and clerked for Judge Betty B. Fletcher of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He earned a J.D. from Howard University and a B.A. from Cornell University, and attended Deep Springs College.
As the Managing Director for Advocacy, nash works to assure the organization's work is impactful, collaborative, and innovative.
David Sobel is Senior Counsel in Washington, DC, where he directs the FOIA Litigation for Accountable Government (FLAG) Project. David has handled numerous cases seeking the disclosure of government documents on privacy policy, including electronic surveillance, encryption controls and airline passenger screening initiatives. He served as co-counsel in the challenge to government secrecy concerning post-September 11 detentions and participated in the submission of a civil liberties amicus brief in the first-ever proceeding of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review. David is co-editor of the 2002 and 2004 editions of Litigation Under the Federal Open Government Laws. He is a recipient of EFF's Pioneer Award (2003) and the American Library Association's James Madison Award (2004), and has been inducted into the First Amendment Center's National FOIA Hall of Fame (2006). David was formerly counsel to the non-profit National Security Archive, and, in 1994, co-founded the Electronic Privacy Information Center, where he directed FOIA litigation and focused on government surveillance and collection of personal information. David is a graduate of the University of Michigan and the University of Florida College of Law.
As the event coordinator, Melissa develops and leads membership events for the EFF. Prior to EFF she’s worked with events of all sizes from backyards to convention centers in personal, corporate, and non-profit settings. She thrives on the effort it takes to make an event both successful and memorable, always dreaming up what could be next for EFF event attendees. When not at the office you will find her planning her next trip, trying a new restaurant, or at home with her husband, pets, and many, many plants.
Mitch Stoltz is EFF’s IP Litigation Director. Mitch litigates copyright and trademark cases that impact free speech, defending the rights of software developers, website owners, nonprofits, and individual internet users. His work has touched on video and audio streaming, web hosting, app and game development, free and open source software licensing, government transparency, freedom to tinker, and threats of censorship from within the internet’s infrastructure.
Mitch also leads EFF’s antitrust and competition working group, which does litigation, legislative advocacy, education, and policy analysis to address the harms of monopoly power on users’ rights and innovation.
Before joining EFF, Mitch was an associate at Constantine Cannon LLP in Washington DC. Long ago, in an internet far far away, Mitch was a security engineer at Netscape Communications, and he is still an engineer at heart. Mitch has a JD from Boston University School of Law and a BA in Public Policy Analysis and Computer Science from Pomona College.
415-436-9333 x142
Lee Tien is a Senior Staff Attorney and the Adams Chair for Internet Rights at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, specializing in free speech law, including intersections with intellectual property law and privacy law. Before joining EFF, Lee was a sole practitioner specializing in Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation. Mr. Tien has published articles on children's sexuality and information technology, anonymity, surveillance, and the First Amendment status of publishing computer software. Lee received his undergraduate degree in psychology from Stanford University, where he was very active in journalism at the Stanford Daily. After working as a news reporter at the Tacoma News Tribune for a year, Lee went to law school at Boalt Hall, University of California at Berkeley. Lee also did graduate work in the Program in Jurisprudence and Social Policy at UC-Berkeley.
Katharine is the Director of Policy and Advocacy at EFF, where she coordinates EFF's federal activism. Her areas of expertise are competition, broadband access, intellectual property, net neutrality, fair use, free speech online, and intermediary liability. Before joining EFF, Katharine spent many years as a writer and editor at the science fiction and science website io9. She has had her work appear in many other publications, including Vice, Defector, Gizmodo, and Jezebel. Katharine got a BA in history at Columbia University and a JD at USC Gould School of Law, doing work with the USC Intellectual Property and Technology Law Clinic. It was Katharine’s experience in media that led to her going to law school with an eye to learning more about fair use and copyright law.
F. Mario Trujillo is a Staff Attorney on the Electronic Frontier Foundation's civil liberties team, where he focuses on the Fourth Amendment and privacy rights. He is also part of the Coders' Rights Project. Prior to joining EFF, Mario was an attorney at the privacy law firm ZwillGen and clerked for a federal magistrate judge on the southern border. Before law school, Mario worked as a technology policy reporter at The Hill newspaper. Mario holds a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and graduated from the University of New Mexico with degrees in journalism and philosophy.
* Admitted in Washington, D.C., only; not admitted in California
Hayley Tsukayama (she/her) is Associate Director of Legislative Activism at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Her focus is state legislation. She works with EFF's legislative team to craft our positions and public messaging about state bills on EFF issues. She also collaborates with community groups, other policy advocates, and state lawmakers on EFF legislative priorities across the country, including health privacy, surveillance, and right-to-repair. Additionally, she advocates for strong consumer data privacy legislation at the state and national level.
Prior to joining EFF, Hayley spent nearly eight years as a consumer technology reporter at The Washington Post writing stories on the industry's largest companies. She is CIPP/US certified by the International Association of Privacy Professionals. She has an MA in journalism from the University of Missouri and a BA in history from Vassar College.
Chris is a Grassroots Advocacy Organizer for EFF, working with members of the EFA. Chris previously served as a Campaign Manager & Strategist for various political and non-profit campaigns across the country. With over a decade of experience in organizing and having been a part of over 50 successful electoral & non-profit campaigns, Chris has been instrumental in building progressive bases in several states and is passionate about mobilizing people and getting them the tools needed to bring about progressive change.
Lee leads the human resources effort for EFF. Prior to joining EFF, he practiced employment law and led the human resources department for several organizations. Lee received his J. D. from Case Western Reserve University and his B.A. and M.S. degrees from Tulane University. He became interested in online privacy issues during law school. After hours, he can be found exploring beautiful northern California with his partner and poodles in search of the best thin crust pizza!
Kit is a senior staff attorney at EFF, working on free speech, net neutrality, copyright, coders' rights, and other issues that relate to freedom of expression and access to knowledge. She has worked for years to support the rights of political protesters, journalists, remix artists, and technologists to agitate for social change and to express themselves through their stories and ideas. Prior to joining EFF, Kit led the civil liberties and patent practice areas at the Cyberlaw Clinic, part of Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, and previously Kit worked at the law firm of Wolf, Greenfield & Sacks, litigating patent, trademark, and copyright cases in courts across the country.
Kit holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a B.S. in neuroscience from MIT, where she studied brain-computer interfaces and designed cyborgs and artificial bacteria.
Brad Warren is a Senior Software Architect at EFF working primarily on Certbot, a tool for obtaining certificates and automatically configuring SSL/TLS. As one of the core developers of the project, Brad is interested in making security products more usable as we work towards a more private, secure, and encrypted web.
Carlos coordinates the translations of EFF's material into various languages, both from a team of translators and volunteers, He also translates the bulk of EFF's content into Spanish. In Lima, he has worked producing content for coupon companies, producing gastronomic photography, managing bookstore chains and publishing houses and, at the same time, being a free software activist. For some years now, he has run El Langoy, one of the oldest podcasts in Peru.
George Koichi Wong is a San Francisco native who grew up speaking Japanese, studied International Relations and Linguistics at the University of California, San Diego, and received a master’s degree in Conflict Resolution from Georgetown University. His educational interests varied from equity in public education to nuclear disarmament, before finally settling at international human rights law.
He spent a summer as an intern at the Pat Finucane Centre in Northern Ireland, which had a great influence on his understanding of the impact of armed conflict on ordinary people. He also had the privilege of participating in a study trip to Malta, where he facilitated a discussion with law students at the University of Malta on the intersection of migration and international human rights law. For his master’s thesis, he produced a report for ICITAP on Ukraine’s maritime border security in the Black Sea, based on research and interviews with US and Ukrainian officials. His previous work experience includes internships at the World Faiths Development Dialogue, the Wilson Center, and the National Immigration Forum. His passion and career goals are to realize a world where human rights are truly universal. George is fluent in Japanese and English, and studied Russian in university.
As a San Francisco native, pre-COVID, his favorite activities were visiting new cafes, exploring urban spaces that are car-free and car-optional, and ranting about land-use and zoning restrictions in the US. Mid-COVID, he is most often seen working on his espresso game, cooking his favorite restaurant meals at home, and reading about modern monetary theory.
Peter builds and maintains websites for EFF. After studying math at UC Santa Cruz he got started programming electronics and then for the web.
leez, a second-person narrative. You're quite fond of freely-modifiable and redistributable things. While compiling your college thesis on the free and open-source software movements, you rebuilt their course-management servers with free and open-source software. You are a social justice advocate that is often found evangelizing worker-run factories or encryption. Lately you also find pleasure in the ancient art of seafaring, the modern art of flash mobs, phaselocking bullymongs, and trying to make music with that electronic keyboard.
Jillian C. York is EFF's Director for International Freedom of Expression and is based in Berlin, Germany. Her work examines state and corporate censorship and its impact on culture and human rights, with a focus on historically marginalized communities. At EFF, she leads the platform censorship working group, and also works on European policy, the impact of sanctions on the use of technology, and occasionally, digital security. Jillian is the author of Silicon Values: The Future of Free Speech Under Surveillance Capitalism (Verso, 2021) and has written for Vice, Buzzfeed, the Guardian, and the New York Times, among others. She teaches at the College of Europe Natolin in Warsaw. She is also a regular speaker at global events.
Prior to joining EFF, Jillian worked at Harvard's Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, where she coordinated the work of the OpenNet Initiative and contributed to other projects including Herdict and research into DDoS attacks. She has also worked in fundraising and grant writing, as an EFL teacher, and as a travel writer.
Jillian is a fellow at the Centre for Internet & Human Rights in Berlin and a founding member of the Deep Lab collective. She currently serves on the IFEX Council, the Open Tech Fund Advisory Council, and on the advisory board of SMEX.
Jillian holds a BA in Sociology from Binghamton University, where—like a surprisingly large number of individuals in her field—she also studied theatre. Prior to the pandemic, she could often be found flying the friendly skies, but today, is more likely to be found on Zoom or Twitter.
Syd builds and maintains websites for EFF. They graduated from Yale, where they studied statistics, helped manage a student developer program, and organized a political discussion/activist group. They love Ruby, data privacy, and unsolved mysteries.
Hannah is a staff attorney who focuses on criminal justice, privacy, and cybersecurity issues, and is part of the Coders’ Rights Project. Prior to joining EFF, she represented criminal defendants on appeal in state and federal courts in New York, Illinois, and Missouri, and also worked at the human rights NGO, Human Rights in China. While pursuing her law degree at Washington University in St. Louis, Hannah represented indigent defendants and refugee applicants in Durban, South Africa, and studied international law at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. In college, Hannah studied Computer Science and Management at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. In her spare time, she likes to climb things.
*Admitted in New York, Illinois, Missouri; Not admitted in California
Mackey is EFF's resident Bernese Mountain Dog. He specializes in getting treats from interns, barking at Board members and peeing in front of visiting movie stars. He always encrypts his bones to keep them safe from the NSA.
