Andy Kopplin

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Andy Kopplin is the former chief of staff to Louisiana Governors Mike Foster (Republican) and Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (Democrat). He has also served as Executive Director with the Louisiana Recovery Authority. Kopplin is a graduate of Rice University and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University^{[citation needed]}.

He ran in the special election to fill Louisiana's 6th congressional seat which was vacated by retiring congressman Richard Baker. However, he finished fourth of five in the Democratic primary on March 8, 2008. This defeat ended his campaign for the seat.

Following very closely on the heels of his primary defeat, Kopplin was hired as the Executive Vice President of Growth Strategy and Development for Teach for America.

Teach for America (TFA) touted his experience as the founding executive director of the Louisiana Recovery Authority (LRA) as beneficial to his post. "Under Kopplin’s leadership, the LRA developed the strategy and built the bipartisan coalitions that more than doubled congressional appropriations for Louisiana’s rebuilding, from $13 billion to $28 billion. The LRA also produced visionary community and regional rebuilding plans and led the charge for important political reforms like the state takeover of the failing New Orleans school system.".^[1]