About the Organizers
Amanda Burke - Head Organizer
Amanda lives and works just north of Boston with her boyfriend John, who she met at Terminus in 2008. She is the creator and organizer of HP-MA, which she established in May ’09 after LeakyCon. When she is not busy organizing events for HP-MA or planning for Aeternitas, she works full time at a local medical center and attends school full time online. After losing her maternal grandmother and mother to lung cancer in November ’07 and December ’09, Amanda cherishes her personal relationships more than anything. She loves to spend quiet time at home with her boyfriend and their cat Spike. She also enjoys the time she gets to spend with close friends (both muggle and wizard) and family. When she first fell in love with the Harry Potter books in 2002, Amanda never would have guessed where that new love would one day lead her. The Harry Potter fandom has offered her lifelong relationship and once-in-a-life-time experiences. She will always be grateful for these opportunities and is ecstatic to be working with the following people to bring Aeternitas 2011 to life.
Jonathon Rosenthal - Assistant Head Organizer
Jonathon has been involved in the Harry Potter fandom for approximately 4 years. His first involvement was working register at a Barnes and Noble during the release night for OOTP. He is currently the head organizer of The Group That Shall Not Be Named, the NYC HP Meetup. Along with organizing events through TGTSNBN, Jonathon hopes to keep fandom thriving by encouraging and assisting others in creating their own fan groups. On his muggle hours, Jonathon is the co-owner of an IT consulting firm. He is beyond thrilled to be working with HP-MA on Aeternitas. He hopes everyone enjoys attending it as much as he enjoyed bringing it to life.
Gia Bufalino – Logistics Chair
Gia acquired an expansive background in conventions/event planning while living in Las Vegas. This magical city unequivocally indulged her hankering for adventure, and enabled this Gryffindor to break free from her otherwise Slytherin family. After five years - deciding to pursue her dreams - Gia left Vegas to get her B.A. in a specially designed major that combines her love of words and passion for food. Notwithstanding that being for a career as a food critic, her affinity for words grew from an early-established addiction to a good story... Ergo, Gia has every intention of supplying the masses with a similar dependency by injecting it with her own spellbinding intravenous phonetic symphony... Since the “slight adjustment” from life in Vegas to that of one in Western Mass, Gia gets her fix in Boston, and while a dose of cooking/baking provide a less euphoric prevarication from her rigorous studies, the real high is retail therapy... Hey! She likes money where she can see it - hanging in her closet (or in the form of the plethora of books covering nearly every available shelf/surface at home)! Addictions are hard to kick!
Emeline W. – Security Chair
Emeline ( alias Shillelagh) has attended HP cons for the last 5 years. When she is not busy guarding the halls, she can be found on the Quidditch pitch. A part of The Harry Potter Alliance for almost 3 years now, Emeline seriously loves volunteering for this beyond awesome organization. Currently, Emeline is working towards her Masters in Education. She wants to teach English and History to 6th graders. (Yes, she is insane, but she loves this age group for some weird reason). While in school, she is an expert barista at Starbucks and spends her days substitute teaching. 28 yrs old, Emeline is still searching for her Won Won and is not opposed to blind dates (hint hint). In her free time, she loves reading, making jewelry (she has her own shop on Etsy) and going to wrock shows.
Bella Forrister – Web Mistress & Formal Programming Co-Chair
Bella is a witch and professional technomancer (web developer) who enjoys a magical lifestyle with her very own Dark Lord and husband, Tom Forrister, in Salem, Massachusetts. She is excited to be a part of HP-MA and Aeternitas, and hopes the conference will provide further opportunities to recruit Death Eaters to her Lord’s cause. She frequently cosplays Bellatrix Lestrange, and is proud to be the stage manager for “The Final Battle” (http://thefinalbattle.org/), which is scheduled to be performed again at LeakyCon 2011. When not stuck in Azkaban, Bella spends her time developing creative ways to pierce the Veil, circumvent Veritaserum, and send Unforgivable Curses via owl.
Tom Forrister – Formal Programming Co-Chair
Tom Forrister is a professional writer and editor. He lives a magical lifestyle with his wife and snakes in Salem, Massachusetts. Despite his inclinations towards the dark arts, Tom considers himself an ethical dark wizard--he is a columnist for The Good Men Project Magazine (goodmenproject.com), contributing to the conversation about what it means to be a good man in the 21st century. He frequently cosplays The Dark Lord, and is reprising his role as Lord Voldemort in The Final Battle at LeakyCon 2011. He is exceedingly grateful for and proud of HP-MA and everyone who has made Aeternitas possible.
Luba Kruglova – Informal Programming Chair
Luba got her first Harry Potter book for her 18th birthday in 2001 and after reading it immediately bought the next three books. After that, Luba developed a healthy obsession with the fandom and devoured each book and movie as they came out. Luba was the founder of the now defunct Harry Potter meet up who helped the Harvard University book store entertain the masses in line for the release of book seven. This is Luba’s first chair position at a Harry Potter convention and she is excited to chair informal programming.
Trevor Sabato – Layout & Graphic Design Chair
Trevor is new to Harry Potter Fandom. In fact, Aeternitas will be his first convention ever! Upon meeting the Aeternitas staff, he was instantly enchanted. The books had heralded fantastical distraction, new friends and late-night reading. He’s excited/terrified because the world of witchcraft and wizardry will once again bring fantastical distraction, new friends and very little sleep. Trevor believes you learn from everyone you meet and everything you do and can’t wait until Hogwarts is back in session this April. Though the Convention, for all its delight and whimsy, is incentive enough to join the widarding workforce, Fizzing Whizbees are awfully enticing, too (assuming, of course, that the Honeydukes’ donation doesn’t “magically” disappear before the convention). While Trevor’s addition to the convention may have been unconventional, it was equal parts magic, mystery and Logistics.
Jennie Steinberg – Wizard Rock Chair
Jennie recently became involved with HP-MA and, thus, Aeternitas when she moved from Los Angeles to Boston in February 2009, but she has been in the wizard rock scene since about 2007. She was first introduced to wizard rock when a muggle friend of hers said, "I have this friend who sings in a band about Harry Potter and he's playing a concert tonight... you like Harry Potter, right?" That band was The Remus Lupins, and it's been a steady and fun descent into the depths of fandom ever since. Although the Harry Potter fandom is Jennie’s home, she also enjoys musical theatre, scrapbooking, and anything written by Joss Whedon. When she’s not running around showing off her Gryffindor pride (i.e. in her Muggle Life), Jennie is a therapist, currently working in a group home with teenage girls, but with aspirations of someday starting a private practice.
Perseus LePage – CosPlay Co-Chair
Perseus, with His Draco, is well known in the Potterverse for Their Malfoy impersonation. Perseus works in Biotechnology, rides horses whenever he can, is a classically trained actor, vocalist, and dancer, and has dabbled as a martial artist, weight trainer, and stuntman. He fell into the Potterverse after being compared to the elder Malfoy so many times He decided to see what all the fuss was about. After finding Draco on an online Deatheater site, the legendary pair made their HPEF debut at LUMOS and they've been terrifying muggles with their Malfoy Magic ever since. Featured in many books and articles, they live in Malfoy Manor with their beloved cats. He also portrays the Vampire Lestat, Prince Nuada, and Haldir, and will be playing Lucius Malfoy in "The Final Battle", as well as singing with countertenor Draco in a special concert.
Draco LePage – CosPlay Co-Chair
Draco (yes, it's His real name), as a part of the infamous Malfoys, has been portraying the younger Malfoy with Perseus LePage - as Lucius - semi-professionally since coming over from England in 2006 and is very well known in the Potterverse. He is a trained hair stylist and make-up artist and has done professional modelling as well as having been featured in a number of books. He is studying classical ballet, voice (countertenor), and horseback riding, is a master calligrapher and an amateur herbalist and potions master. Apart from Draco Malfoy, He also impersonates the Anne Rice vampire Louis, Buffy's Spike and Michael Jackson.
John Walter Jr.– Quidditch & Games Chair
John Walter, a veteran of Michigan, now lives just north of Boston with his girlfriend Amanda (who he met at Terminus 2008) and their cat Spike. John became a fan of the Harry Potter series after renting the first two movies at the suggestion of a co-worker. Since then, he has read and reread the series more times than he can count.In his free time John loves playing board games, trading card games, and sports of all kinds. His other fandoms include Spider-man, Whedon, and Star Trek. He is also a big fan of the Dark Tower Series by Stephen King. John looks forward to working with and meeting friends new and old through Aeternitas.
About HP-MA
HP-MA is a Harry Potter social group for Potter fans in the greater Boston and New England area. HP-MA was created in May, 2009 by Amanda Burke and has grown into a fairly large and active group since then. We are of course, always looking for more people to share the Potter love with and if you are interested in getting involved please visit: HP-MA.
In August, 2009, HP-MA became a chapter of the HPA. Still a fairly new group and chapter we have yet to do much other than plan this event, but we have plans to get involved with future HPA campaigns and charities local to Boston. If you are interested in getting involved with this Chapter of the HPA please visit: HPMA Order of the Phoenix