We are pleased to welcome Sarah Deutsch back to EFF’s Board of Directors. Until her retirement earlier this year, Sarah was Vice President and Deputy General Counsel at Verizon Communications, where she spent over 23 years in the legal department. She was responsible for Verizon's global IP practice, including copyrights, trademarks, patent licensing, and unfair competition. In the course of her career, Sarah also managed Verizon's privacy practice, and worked on a broad set of global intellectual property policy issues, including Internet policy, online liability, and advocacy. 

Over the years, Sarah has been involved in some of the most important high-level decision-making over the future of digital rights. She served as a Private Sector Advisor to U.S. Delegation to WIPO Copyright Treaties and to the G8 Cybercrime Conference, and she fought for consumers’ rights in the negotiations that lead to the passage of the DMCA. For this work in support of technology users, she received Public Knowledge's President's Award for Extraordinary Dedication to Protecting the Free Flow of Information Over the Internet in 2009.

The role that the telecom industry plays in protecting our rights and freedoms in the digital world grows more important every day, and we have long been a fan of Sarah and her work. In fact, this is Sarah’s second time on EFF’s board. She served in this role from 2005 to 2006, and we are thrilled to have her back.