Eileen Hershenov has served for decades as a senior executive for several of the nation’s leading mission-driven not-for-profits. Through December 2025, she was Chief Legal Officer at PEN America, an organization which works to protect free expression in the U.S. and worldwide. She has a BA from Yale College and a JD from Yale Law School.
From 2018 to 2023, Hershenov served as Senior Vice President, Policy and then Senior Vice President, Democracy Initiatives at the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). She also served as general counsel and head of public policy for the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF), which operates Wikipedia.
Hershenov was general counsel to Consumer Reports, a nonprofit, from 2005 to 2015, and before that served for nearly ten years as general counsel to philanthropist George Soros’ Open Society Foundations.
Hershenov has litigated civil rights and liberties cases, intellectual property cases and general business disputes, and has negotiated various business and media transactions; she has brought cases supporting racial justice and the rights of women, immigrants, and the LGBTQ+ community, defended journalists and researchers from defamation claims and also litigated and lobbied in the intersection of civil rights and national security.
Hershenov began her professional career as an organizer for the New York Public Interest Research Group, where she led a successful statewide legislative campaign to change a law that had barred victims of toxic substances such as asbestos and diethylstilbestrol (DES) from going to court to sue manufacturers.
Shedding Light on the Risks
& Benefits of Medications
