Andy Bernstein helped found HeadCount in 2004 and became its executive director in the spring of 2008. Under his stewardship, HeadCount has registered nearly 500,000 and become a leader in harnessing the power of music to drive social change.
Andy was one of the founders of National Voter Registration Day, and conceived the corresponding social media campaign that has involved over 500 musicians and celebrities and generated over one billion social media impressions.
He also helped create "Participation Row," an activism village where concert attendees have taken over 100,000 socially-conscious actions while raising nearly $1.5 million for various music-industry charities (including over $500,000 generated from the auction of one guitar signed by members of the Grateful Dea). Andy has produced nearly a dozen benefit concerts and live music events, including 2012's "The Bridge Session," which paired HeadCount board member Bob Weir with members of The National for the first time.
Prior to creating HeadCount, Andy was best known in the music community as an author of “The Pharmer’s Almanac”, a guide to the band Phish that sold over 70,000 copies. He also worked in sports for more than a decade, as media editor of Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Journal and a vice president at the sports technology company Kangaroo TV.
He splits his time between New York City and a slopeside ski condo in nearby Vernon, NJ.