Silent Witnesses is headed by Alanna Berger and Blaise Liffick. This husband and wife team has led the organization since the summer of 2005, when they gathered more than 130 volunteers as Silent Witnesses for the Harrisburg (PA) PrideFest. They have since trained more than 400 Silent Witnesses around the central PA region – including Harrisburg, York, Lancaster, Reading, Allentown, Kutztown, Millersville, and Shippensburg.

Executive Director Alanna Berger is a former systems analyst who quit her high-paying (and high-stress!) job in the fall of 2007 to devote herself to this work. She has led her church’s Rainbow EqUUality Advocates lay-led ministry for several years, working on behalf of the GLBTQ community. She is also on the Board of the Unitarian Universalist Pennsylvania Legislative Advocacy Network (UUPLAN), which is currently keeping track of state legislation impacting the GLBTQ community and lobbying on their behalf. In addition, she is the Vice President of the Harrisburg PrideFest Committee.

Dr. Blaise Liffick (Director of Operations) is a computer scientist at a PA state university, where he has been on the faculty for over 26 years. His office is a designated “Safe Zone” for GLBTQ students, and he is the faculty advisor for his school’s gay-straight alliance. He has been involved with the GLBTQ community with his wife for several years, and is currently on the advisory committee for the Lancaster chapter of Common Roads (a GLBTQ youth program headquartered in Harrisburg). He is also assisting a group with planning a new pride celebration for Lancaster, PA.

The couple does not have any GLBTQ children, siblings, or parents.