Eko K. A. Owen joins the FSF board as the union staff pick
Union staff selected outreach and communications coordinator Eko K. A. Owen to the role. Owen follows Ian Kelling, current president, who held the staff seat since its creation in 2021. At the board meeting on the 20th of December, 2025, Owen was officially welcomed to both the board of directors and the FSF's voting member bodies.
This board position was created to have staff participate via this designated seat in governance deliberations. It was an important step in the FSF's effort to recognize and support new leadership, to connect that leadership to the community, and to improve transparency and accountability through giving staff a seat at the table. "The union staff seat on the board enabled me to make many positive contributions to the FSF over the last 4 years," said Kelling. "I'm confident this role will enable Eko to help the FSF in wonderful and new ways. I'm excited to be a part of it and thankful that they volunteered for it."
"I'm very optimistic about the freer future we can work towards together," Eko said when asked about joining the FSF board. "User freedom is a human right, and I am honored to take part in the legacy of fighting for it."
About Eko K. A. Owen
Eko K. A. Owen (they/them) joined the Free Software Foundation as the Outreach and Communications Coordinator (OCC) in 2024. As OCC, they use their editing skills and creativity to help push FSF publications and events forward. Prior to working with the FSF, Eko worked in continuing legal education programming, diversity and inclusion education, and coffee crafting. They advocate for user freedom because it is a human right, and a vital tool for securing and protecting other human rights. In their spare time, Eko reads science fiction and horror novels, tries out new recipes with their partner, and writes moody fiction.
About the Free Software Foundation
The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to promoting computer users' right to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute computer programs. The FSF promotes the development and use of free (as in freedom) software — particularly the GNU operating system and its GNU/Linux variants — and free documentation for free software. The FSF also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and political issues of freedom in the use of software, and its websites, located at https://fsf.org and https://gnu.org, are an important source of information about GNU/Linux. Donations to support the FSF's work can be made at https://donate.fsf.org, or become an associate member at https://fsf.org/join. The FSF is a remote organization, incorporated in Massachusetts, US.
More information about the FSF, as well as important information for journalists and publishers, is at https://www.fsf.org/press.
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