Senior Staff

Andrew Slack
Co-founder and Executive Director

Andrew, 29, is a teacher, social organizer and human rights activist, comedian, actor, and writer. He spent years performing sketch comedy for hundreds of colleges across the US only to stop touring so that he could devote himself full time to the HP Alliance which he co-founded in 2005. Andrew has also co-written, acted in, and produced online videos that have been viewed more than six million times and continues to perform stand up comedy in the Boston area. He has trained at an acting conservatory in London and studied under peace and civil rights activists in both Northern Ireland and the United States. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Brandeis University, Andrew is dedicated to learning and extrapolating how modern myth, new media, and expressive therapy can transform our lives both personally and collectively. He is incredibly grateful and humbled by everyone who has helped the HP Alliance come into existence and continue to work toward putting the magical lessons that we have learned from Harry, Hermione, and Ron into our world.

Kate Looby
Staff Coordinator

Kate Looby is a Gryffindor graduate student at the University of Hawaii at Manoa where she spends most her time studying Language and Cognition in an attempt to gain her Masters Degree. In 1999, as a freshman in high school, Kate finally decided to give "that silly kid's book" a try; she subsequently spent the majority of the last decade bullying persuading anyone with a pulse into reading the books. Although she has hovered around the fringes of the online fandom for years, Kate did not join the HPA Staff until early 2008. She does a little bit of everything at the HPA, and she could not be more pleased or proud to be a part of the "real life" Dumbledore's Army. In her spare time, Kate enjoys leading armies into battles against villanous goblins and fabricating amusing stories about her life that never actually happened. You can find more about her from her bitingly-witty and tragically-neglected blog.

Karen Bernstein
Chapter Coordinator

Karen is a college student who got hooked on Harry Potter when she accidentally read Chamber of Secrets before Sorcerer's Stone in the summer of 1999 - the same summer she planned her first community service project. Ten years later, she is so excited that these two passions have merged! Her absolute favorite part of her job is talking to Chapter Organizers about their chapters - she is so unbelievably proud of all of them!! She is also an obsessive forum-checker and loves AIM conversations. Outside of the HPA, Karen is part of a dance company, an interactive theatre troupe, and an a capella group. She has also held various roles at the local, state, and national level for entirely too many different projects - favorites include bringing the AIDS Quilt to her school, Hurricane Katrina relief work, Nanowrimo Municipal Liaison, and various focus groups and peer counseling training sessions.

Acacia Ludwig
Lead Designer

As long as there are those that are aware that the weapon we have is love and that more than ever, it's time to use that weapon.