Lila Inayat Bailey (aka, Bear, LilaBear, Binky, Lili and/or LiBay) was born on January 16, 1977 in an orchard in Santa Cruz with live Sufi music playing her into the world.
Her parents, Andrew and Susan, are immigrants from South Africa who met in New York City only to discover their fathers were born in the same town in Scotland. Chased by natural disaster from an idyllic cabin in Boulder Creek to the east end of Long Island, Lila spent her childhood and adolescence in East Quogue, New York.
She escaped as soon as she could, first to Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island (with an interlude in Cape Town along the way) where she studied philosophy, archaeology, creative writing, and steel drums.
After a brief stint working in publishing in New York (yup, she was there for 9/11), Lila returned to her home state of California for law school at Berkeley. There, her passion for public interest technology law & policy was born. Since 2005, she has made her life in San Francisco with her husband of 16 years, Derek Slater, her fluffy mutt, Zelda, and her found family in that city and all over the dang world.
She loves singing, reading & talking about books, fighting for the rights of human beings to live in a world where technology serves them (not the other way around), and snuggling.
