Shari Steele
{{short description|Technologist, lawyer, and digital rights activist}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Shari Steele
| image = Shari Steele.png
| alt = Portrait of Shari Steele
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date =
| birth_place =
| employer = {{plainlist|
- Electronic Frontier Foundation (1992–2015)
- The Tor Project (2015–2019)}}
| known_for = Digital rights activism
| education = {{plainlist|
- Widener University School of Law (J.D.)
- Georgetown University Law Center (LL.M.)
- West Chester University (M.S.)
}}
| spouse = Bill Vass
}}
Shari Steele is a technologist, lawyer, and activist for digital freedom. She worked for the Electronic Frontier Foundation as the legal director and then executive director, as well as at The Tor Project as the executive director.{{Cite web|url=https://psmag.com/social-justice/shari-steele-on-digital-privacy-and-harassment|title=Before She Tackled How to Keep People Safe on the Web, Shari Steele Had to Tackle Harassment at Tor|last=Scoles|first=Sarah|date=January 22, 2019|website=Pacific Standard|language=en|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=March 31, 2020}}
Career
Steele joined the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) as a staff attorney in 1992. She later became the legal director, a position she held for eight years before she became the EFF's executive director in 2000.{{Cite web|url=https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/04/shari-steele-legacy-digital-rights|title=Shari Steele: A Legacy of Digital Rights|date=April 2, 2015|website=Electronic Frontier Foundation|language=en|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=March 31, 2020}} Steele helped to grow the EFF from a small team of lawyers to a much larger organization known for its involvement in legal disputes involving digital rights, including challenges to broad digital surveillance practices by the National Security Agency (NSA) and to the United States government's use of National Security Letters.{{Cite magazine|last=Zetter|first=Kim|url=https://www.wired.com/2015/12/tor-hires-a-new-leader-to-help-it-combat-the-war-on-privacy/|title=Tor Hires a New Leader to Help It Combat the War on Privacy|date=December 11, 2015|magazine=Wired|access-date=March 31, 2020|issn=1059-1028}}
Although she had intended to retire when she left the EFF, she instead decided to take a position as the executive director of the Tor Project in 2015, which she held until the end of 2019.{{Cite web|url=https://www.cyberscoop.com/shari-steele-tor-director-resigns/|title=Shari Steele, Tor executive director, to step down at end of year|last=O'Neill|first=Patrick Howell|date=February 22, 2018|website=CyberScoop|language=en|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=March 31, 2020}} She is known for her work at The Tor Project to make the organization more inclusive, as well as for guiding the organization through a major scandal involving accusations of sexual assault against Jacob Appelbaum, a Tor employee and activist.{{Cite web|url=https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/22/17042544/tor-director-shari-steele-steps-down|title=Tor director Shari Steele will step down at the end of the year|last=Brandom|first=Russell|date=February 2, 2018|website=The Verge|language=en|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=March 31, 2020}}
Life and education
Steele earned her Juris Doctor degree from Widener University School of Law. She later earned an LL.M. degree from Georgetown University Law Center, where she also worked as a teaching fellow. Steele also has a master's degree in Instructional Media, which she earned from West Chester University.{{Cite web|url=https://www.eff.org/tr/about/staff/shari-steele|title=Shari Steele|last=|first=|date=October 7, 2011|website=Electronic Frontier Foundation|language=|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=April 5, 2020}}
Steele is married to Bill Vass, the vice president of engineering at Amazon Web Services.{{Cite web|url=https://www.dailydot.com/debug/shari-steele-tor-project-eff/|title=How Shari Steele aims to take the Tor Project mainstream|last=Turton|first=William|date=February 16, 2016|website=The Daily Dot|language=en-US|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=April 5, 2020}}
References
{{reflist|30em}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Steele, Shari}}
Category:American civil rights lawyers
Category:Computer law activists
Category:Electronic Frontier Foundation people
Category:Georgetown University Law Center alumni
Category:Georgetown University Law Center faculty
Category:Tor (anonymity network)
Category:West Chester University alumni
Category:Widener University Delaware Law School alumni
Category:American women lawyers