Elliot Harmon

Elliot Harmon

Activism Director, Senior Activist

Elliot Harmon joined EFF in 2015 and served as EFF's Activism Director from 2018-2020. He was a senior member of EFF's leadership team, where he was always a thoughtful and powerful voice for EFF's mission and how to better structure the organization to serve that mission as it grew.

In 2021, due to his battle with melanoma, Elliot stepped back from the rigors of being the Activism Director but, ever incapable of not working, continued on at EFF as a Senior Activist. He advocated for free speech and the right to innovate online, with particular emphases on patents, copyright, open access, and Section 230. Elliot's leadership was on display often during his time at EFF, as he led campaigns protecting net neutrality, fighting SESTA-FOSTA, and defending the .org domain from a takeover by private equity, not to mention his regular battles against patent trolls and for open access to research.

Before coming to EFF, Elliot served as Director of Communications at Creative Commons, an organization that helps creators share their works with the public via open copyright licenses. Before that, he worked as a writer and curator for TechSoup, a technology resource for the nonprofit community. He was granted degrees from the University of South Dakota and the California College of the Arts.

Elliot was a mentor to many and his contribution to civil society will continue on in the people he inspired.

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An ink illustration. The text says: "Elliot Harmon, 1981-2021, activist, writer, friend."

Honoring Elliot Harmon—EFF Activism Director, Poet, Friend—1981-2021

It is with heavy hearts that we mourn and celebrate our friend and colleague Elliot Harmon, who passed away peacefully on Saturday morning following a lengthy battle with melanoma. We will deeply miss Elliot’s clever mind, powerful pen, generous heart, and expansive kindness.