Amy cut her creative teeth in the fast-paced advertising world at one of the largest ad agencies in the Southeastern part of the country. In 1997 she parlayed her design and marketing firm, co-founded with Beth Carls, into founding partner equity in a Web 1.0 start-up. She was part of the ten team members that steered Align Solutions to a staggering 8,164% growth in less than three years. After becoming Houston’s Fastest Growing Company, Align (just a hair shy of their third birthday) became the largest of eight companies to merge forming Luminant Worldwide, the largest mid-cap IPO in the tech sector (September 1999) with a $158 million valuation. The celebrations that ensued gave new meaning to, “party like it was 1999!”
Enthused by the powerful potential online platforms offered for delivering captivating, personalized interactions, Amy continued her entrepreneurial passions, but this time around dedicating her business acumen to becoming a social venture entrepreneur to use the power of business principals to solve social issues.
In the summer of 2000 she and Beth teamed up again with four other co-founders to form MindOH!, an evidence-based character education company dedicated to revamping the in-school discipline process into a meaningful, learning experience for at-risk students. With well over a 1.2 million youth responses and two third party, evidence-based, research studies as proof, Amy and Beth capitalized yet again on technology and ingenuity this time to reach out and give a voice to kids typically muted in traditional, school discipline models.
THIS I KNOW
“Using the power of social
media to gather insightful infor-mation from kids’ points of view, allows me to be the best advocate I can be to help them not only survive their growing up years
but to thrive each day.”
- Amy Looper
Birthday: July 17th
College: Sam Houston State University
Degree: Bachelor of Fine Arts with a specialization in Advertising
Favorite quote: “It ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.” -- Machiavelli
Follow me:
Random bits:
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•Fanatic lover of Levenger paper, pens and little container “thingys”
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•Considers house cleaning a form of stress relief
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•Incredible designer, despite claiming she “can’t draw”
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•Dedicated to keeping the word “groovy” alive
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•Has a peculiar compulsion with Bounce dryer sheets
Title:
Co-Founder and Chief Experience Officer
OneSeventeen Media
Co-Founder and Board Member
KidThrive.org
Having benefited from working with thousands of kids across the country, Amy has been evangelizing the potential of youth social networking (since before there was a name for it). Now, as a co-founder of the hybrid enterprise - OneSeventeen Media + KidThrive.org - Amy is once again leading the vision and developing the comprehensive user experience that’s now proven to engage youth in unprecedented ways to help them navigate - and to survive - their challenging growing up years.
She tries to lead her life as an example that being bullied (she was actually hung on the playground with a jump rope by a bully), repeating two grades in elementary school, losing a parent and struggling academically are not excuses for youth failure, but opportunities to not only survive but thrive.
Amy’s never met a stranger and enjoys opportunities to advocate for technology’s responsible usefulness in kid’s lives. She’s been interviewed by the likes of CNN, CourtTV, People Magazine, USA Today, TIME, A&E Networks and has been a panelist at Ypulse and South By Southwest (SXSW) Interactive. She’s been featured on radio shows across the country and named one of Houston’s Women in Technology. Amy is an enthusiastic, humorous and highly motivating public speaker who believes in the importance of giving back and thrives on community involvement. She’s donated countless hours to non-profits such as the Special Olympics, Target Hunger, The Women’s Home, The Human Rights Campaign, FotoFest, United Way, Lafitte’s Cove Nature Society, Women in Technology International, The MindOH! Foundation, Inspired Legacies and Women’s Foundation of California.
As if that’s not enough - Amy’s co-authored an anthology book of youth stories about bullying, I Wish I Knew What To Do To Get Bullies To Leave Me Alone, and has been a contributing author to several best selling business, youth and philanthropy books. She’s also a regular contributor to the OneSeventeen Media and Young Minds Digital Times blogs.
She splits her time between her family home town Houston, Texas and adopted home in San Francisco, California. Any free time in these areas you can catch her enjoying a warm breezy Gulf or a cool Pacific sunset on the water with family and friends.
Me in 3rd grade!
My favorite guys doing
hurricane repairs
Our 2009 YMDT winners at SXSW
My BFF’S
