Pat Elder is the author of Military Recruiting in the United States, and the Director of the National Coalition to Protect Student Privacy, an organization that works to counter the alarming militarization of America’s high schools. Elder was a co-founder of the DC Antiwar Network and a long-time member of the Steering Committee of the National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth. His articles have appeared in Truth Out, Common Dreams, Alternet, L.A. Progressive, Sojourner’s Magazine, and U.S. Catholic Magazine. Elder’s work has also been covered by NPR, USA Today, The Washington Post, Aljazeera, Russia Today, and Education Week. Elder has crafted bills and helped to pass legislation in Maryland and New Hampshire to curtail recruiter access to student data. He has been instrumental in helping to convince more than a thousand schools to take steps to protect student data from recruiters. Elder helped to organize a successful series of demonstrations to shut down the Army Experience Center, a first-person shooter video arcade in a Philadelphia suburb. Pat Elder worked to pressure the UN’s Committee on the Rights of the Child to call on the Obama Administration to adhere to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict regarding military recruiting practices in the schools. Elder hold a Master’s in Government from the University of Maryland and Maryland high school teacher certification. He lives with his wife, Nell on the St. Mary’s River in St. Mary’s City, Maryland.