Berhan Taye

Berhan Taye leads Access Now’s work on digital rights in Africa as the Africa Policy Manager. As the Global Internet Shutdowns Lead, Berhan advises Access Now’s #KeepItOn Coalition on policy and advocacy engagements against internet shutdowns. Berhan is also a visiting researcher at the Center for Intellectual Property and Information Technology (CIPIT) at Strathmore University in Nairobi, Kenya. She previously led the #KeepItOn campaign, a global campaign that fights against internet shutdown with a coalition of more than 220 member organizations worldwide. Before joining Access Now, she was a researcher on the Technology for Social Justice Field Scan project, where she researched the tech and social justice space in the US. Before that, she was a Ford-Mozilla Open Web Fellow (2016-2017) with Research Action Design and Open Technology Institute. Berhan previously worked with the Alliance for Affordable Internet researching the gender digital divide in Kenya and at the IGAD’s Conflict Early Warning and Early Response Center mitigating violent conflict in East Africa. Berhan holds an MA in Peace Studies and Public Policy from the University of Notre Dame and a BA in International Relations from Malmö University.