Kristin Russo, Camp Director
CEO and Co-founder of Everyone Is Gay. Host and producer of PBS Digital's First Person. Author of This is a Book for Parents of Gay Kids. Was once fired for being an absentee camp counselor at age 17 (absence related to falling in love with a girl for the first time). IS NOW BACK WITH A VENGEANCE.
Marni Kellison, Founding Co-Director
Founding Co-Director of A-Camp and proud member of the A-Camp Family Band, gearing up for the 2016 one-night-only reunion tour. Spent some time in feminist academia and the non-profit sector before veering into the trades and finally landing in diplomacy. Proud Canadian, aspiring breadbaker, bourbon enthusiast. Started in the comments now she's here.
Riese Bernard, Founder & CEO Of Camp Ideas
CEO and Editor-in-Chief of Autostraddle. Award-winning blogger, writer, editor and video-maker. Work appears in nine books, magazines like marie claire and curve, and online including jezebel and emily books. Trivia enthusiast, passionate panelist, collage pro, total weirdo.
Sarah Sarwar, Marketing Director
Sarah lives in Michigan with her guinea pig, cat, and girlfriend. Her greatest accomplishment in life is working for Autostraddle. She has all of her teeth and likes dancing.
Abby Braughton, Coordinator Of Logistics & Transportation
Barnyard butch runs wild in the Midwest and is constantly thinking about what veggies to plant next. Multiple talents, titles, and ghost stories to contribute to A-Camp 7.0. Wants to see a picture of your dog.
Yvonne Marquez, QTPOC Speakeasy Co-Director
Yvonne S. Marquez is a senior editor at Autostraddle and a Latina lesbian living in Dallas, Texas. She’s originally from a weird/wonderful place called the Rio Grande Valley, a region along the Texas-Mexico border. She studied magazine journalism in Austin and worked for a local gay & lesbian magazine for a while. She’s a true INFJ, Sagittarius and Ravenclaw, so basically she’s quiet and thinks a lot. In her spare time, she tries to read as many books by women of color as she can, hangs out with her gaggle of queer friends, and likes going for walks with her partner, Gloria, and dog named Tungi.
Mackenzie Macdade, QTPOC Speakeasy Co-Director & Lifeguard
Cleo Anderson is a glitter loving pusher of buttons, a queer woman of color, teaching artist, feminist, poet and general rabble rouser. She got her start in feminism from a book of feminist nursery rhymes when she was 6, and her start in pop culture analysis from 9 years of homeschooling (translation: 9 years of TV and movie watching). A firm believer in queering the collective consciousness, she strives to inspire people to redesign their idea of normal and step out of their comfort zone. She takes inspiration from Gertrude Stein, , Angela Davis, Faith Lehane, Audre Lorde and bell hooks. Her words to live by are: "Have no filter,give no fucks." Someone once described her as "The love child of Angela Davis and Ru-Paul." She thinks that just about sums it up.
Mey Rude, Queen Trans
Mey is a bruja, a trans Latina, a lesbian, a Sagittarius, a proud Gryffindor and a comic book nerd. She writes about trans issues, all-ages media, witchcraft and queer representation and feminism in comics. She also speaks locally and nationally on trans issues and trans advocacy. She loves Scorpios and Slytherins and hates whales and (most) robots.
Laura Wooley, Capitan of Crafts
Law and social work student by day, DIY maven and novice capoeirista by night. Really into plants. Thinks menstruation is always a good conversation topic. Could not be more excited about doing crafts with y’all.
Kaylah Wilson, Dance Director
BA Arts Administration/Digital Media & Design. Southern Belle. Athleisure femme. Lover of heart-shaped sunglasses. Suffers from an irrational love of donuts.
Carolyn Yates, Superintendent of Sex-Related Programming
Los Angeles-based freelance editor and writer. Published in Bitch, the Toast, Jezebel, and elsewhere. Into making sex zines and eye contact. Canadian.
Lauren Klein, AV Director
Recently received a highly practical degree in trumpet playing from The Juilliard School. Lauren spends her days tootin' around recording studios in NYC, whilst positively influencing the youth of America (babysitting). Can be found quoting broad city and sending you snap chats. People who turn on their 'read receipts' are her heroes.
Crystal Silvester, Program Support Assistant
Crystal is Autostraddle's HR Director. She comes from the land down under but lives in Chicago.
Megan O'Grady, Program Support Director
Megan O'Grady is an A-Camp Support staff veteran and so excited to meet and help you!
Alaina Monts
Alaina is a 20-something working on a PhD in Performance as Public Practice in Austin, TX. They are a mom to three cats, they listen to a lot of NPR and musical theatre, and they spend a lot of time on Pinterest lusting over studio apartments. One day, they will be First Lady of the United States.
Liz Castle
Vegan science ninja finishing up her PhD in social cognitive neuroscience at UCLA. Amateur mindfulness practitioner trained at the UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center. Seven years psychological/crisis counseling experience. Sourdough enthusiast with a chemical dependence on green tea.
Cecelia White
Cecelia is a bisexual, polyamorous, southern witch femme. They're a Staff Writer for Autostraddle and they also read tarot and astrological charts professionally. Their other favorite things include making zines, dancing and throwing glitter everywhere.
Heather Hogan
Heather Hogan is an Autostraddle senior editor who grew up in the foothills of the north Georgia mountains and finally made her way to New York City at the age of 34. She has watched every TV show in history that features a queer female character and read every Harry Potter book between one and two million times. One time she cried in front of J.K. Rowling and J.K. Rowling patted her hand.
Laneia Jones
Laneia Jones is a practicing Aquarian raised in the Tennessee hills. She's also the Executive Editor of Autostraddle, where she's written about her feelings and given advice for seven years. She probably wants to talk to you about menstruation, childbirth, boxed wine, sad songs, telepathy, never smiling, esoteric cosmology, and kittens! Laneia lives in Phoenix with her wife, Megan, two kids, and two dogs. She'd rather be back in the South, but listen, it's fine.
Rachel Kincaid
Rachel Kincaid is Autostraddle's managing editor, teacher of writing, fiction writer and professional X-Files enthusiast. She's been on staff at every A-Camp so far, where she's run activities from tea tastings to writing workshops to bisexual discussion groups. She once guessed a bar's wifi password correctly on the second try.
Carrie Wade, Accessiblity Maven
I have a strange body and am making that work for me. Other areas of interest include crossword puzzles, cuddling, squished-faced dogs, and what your Hogwarts house is.
Stef Schwartz, A-Camp Family Band
Autostraddle Music and Vapid Fluff Editor by day, rock'n'roll club manager by night, musician somewhere in the middle. Muscle behind the A-Camp Family Band. No other muscles, really
Isabel Alcantara
Isabel is a Mexico City native and current Brooklyn dweller. She stands about 5-feet tall and gets really mad when her girlfriend stores the olive oil on a high shelf. She's a documentary filmmaker by day and expert quesadilla architect by night. She runs a small production company with her brother and has worked with Paper Magazine, A&E, History Channel, Bon Appetit and The New York Times. She's a mediocre bowler.
Samantha Green
Sam is an educator in Shreveport, Louisiana. She have two dogs. Their names are Khaleesi and Cosima.
Morgan McCormick
Redhead transgirl kitten from the South. She started out as an Autostraddle calendar girl, and from there was welcomed into this lovely and loving queer family. She can frequently be found hugging people, going on long-winded rants about TV shows, pacing in a circle and meowing like a cat, or snuggling up with a nonfiction book.
She's done a lot of work in a lot of cities for a lot of reasons, but the particular specialties I tend to bring to camp are knowledge about sexual and polyamorous relationships, trans rights, mental health therapy, and queer/trans representation in video games.
Cee Webster, Tech Director
Cee is the Tech Director of Autostraddle - they do all the tech related things for the website which include coding, maintaining the servers, keeping everything working, and helping the writers and editors automate things so they can spend their time writing and making great content for you!
Besides their love of tech, they like gardening, making things, tinkering with their house, reading, cooking and baking, traveling, hiking/camping, community building, being outside, and listening to music. They live in Portland, OR. They're 37 and this will be their 8th A-Camp. Their pronouns are they/them/theirs.
Emily Gigler
A-Camp tumblr gnome; dancer, performance artist, video artist, word weaver, professional loud mouth. walking chrysalis.
Sadie Edwards
After years of working the daily grind of mainstream filmmaking she became disillusioned with the misogyny of it all and took a dayjob as a tech support guru moonlighting as a burlesque performer in New Orleans, LA. As of 2016 she has started her own production company , Tall Girl Media, which is dedicated to creating queer media that better serves, and better represents the trans community.
Lucy Hinder
That profile picture of Sarah Sarwar? Taken by me! When I'm not pretending to be a photographer, I do science. Proper, real science. Wearing a lab coat and everything. I’ve even won awards for it (the science, not the lab coat wearing...). With the remaining 1% of my time I mourn the loss of my Scottish accent.