Leslie Harris is the President and CEO of the Center for Democracy & Technology. Ms. Harris is responsible for the overall vision and direction of the organization and serves as its chief strategist and spokesperson.

Since joining CDT, Ms. Harris has led a successful effort to expand the organization’s capacity and reach. Under her direction, the organization has grown significantly, opened a West Coast office and launched an influential Health Privacy Project.  Ms. Harris was also instrumental in the creation of the Global Network Initiative, www.globalnetworkinitiative.com, a collaboration of leading Internet companies, human rights and free expression groups, investors and academics to protect and advance freedom of expression and privacy in the ICT sector.

 Ms. Harris is widely known for her work on policy issues related to civil liberties, new technologies and the Internet including free expression, government and consumer privacy, cyber security and global Internet freedom. She frequently testifies before Congress and federal agencies and is a regular contributor to several online publications and blogs, including the Huffington Post.

 Ms. Harris is a member of the Steering Committee of Open the Government (http://www.openthegovernment.org/). She serves on the Advisory Committee on International Communications and Information Policy at the Department of State, on the Taskforce on the National Health Information Network at the Department of Health and Human Services and is a member of the Board of the Global Network Initiative.
In 2009 she was named one of Washington’s Tech Titans by Washingtonian magazine.

Prior to joining CDT, Ms. Harris was the founder and president of Leslie Harris & Associates ('LHA'), a public policy firm committed to harnessing the power of new information technologies for public good. In that capacity, Ms. Harris played a lead role in landmark Internet legislation ranging from the E-rate program, which brought the power of the Internet to rural and inner city classrooms and public libraries, to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act ("COPPA"), which mandated a privacy regime for children's personal information on the Internet.

Prior to establishing Leslie Harris & Associates, Ms. Harris served in senior leadership positions in two prominent civil liberties organizations. She was the Director of Public Policy for People for the American Way ("PFAW"), where she directed the organization's public policy program and served as a national spokesperson for the organization. Earlier, she served as the Chief Legislative Counsel for the Washington National Office of the American Civil Liberties Union.

She was also in private law practice in Washington.

Ms. Harris received her law degree cum laude from the Georgetown University Law Center and her BA at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa.