He has been invited to address more than 200 universities and public forums around the world, including Harvard Law School, the University of Melbourne, and the House of Democracy and Human Rights in Berlin. He was the first investigative journalist to be named a TED Senior Fellow, and his TED talks on anti-protest laws and secret prisons have been viewed millions of times.

He has been invited to speak about civil liberties and authoritarianism before governmental bodies including the U.S. Congress, Australian Parliament, and Council of Europe. 

Will’s award-winning journalism and advocacy have overturned criminal prosecutions, and been instrumental in striking down “ag-gag” censorship laws as unconstitutional. He was awarded the prestigious Knight-Wallace Fellowship in Law Reporting, and has been featured in the world’s top media outlets, including the Washington Post,  El País, and Le Monde. He frequently appears in documentaries and multimedia productions, including “Truth & Power,” narrated by Maggie Gyllenhaal, and “The Animal People,” produced by Joaquin Phoenix. 

His book, Green Is the New Red: An Insider's Account of a Social Movement Under Siege (City Lights), exposed the criminalization of nonviolent protest groups by the FBI, and was awarded a Kirkus Star for "remarkable merit." It has been described in Counter Terrorism Unit surveillance documents as “compelling and well-written.” 

Will was previously a visiting professor and Distinguished Lecturer at the University of Michigan, where he taught award-winning courses about whistleblowing, rebel reporters, and how to find courage in times of terror. He was the university’s first Senior Fellow in Academic Innovation, and co-created free “Teach Outs” on fake news, voting rights, and other urgent social issues.

In 2022 he was named the inaugural Civil Rights Fellow and Distinguished Journalist-in-Residence at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. 

Will was born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas.