Meet the Team
Alissa J. Haddaji
Founder/Director
Sally O’Keeffe
Head Graphic and Web Designer
Erin Olivieri
Communications, Outreach, and Fundraising Officer
Alissa J. Haddaji
Founder/Director
ADJ Prof. Alissa J. Haddaji is the volunteer founder and director of The Space Consortium, and of Space Week (formerly known as Space Week at Harvard – now extended to the greater Boston area). She is the International Academy of Astronautics coordinator of the United Nations mandated SMPAG ad-hoc Legal Working Group on Planetary Defense and a faculty researcher in Space Law, Policy and Ethics, specialized in International Space Threat Management. She created and taught Harvard’s and Harvard Law School’s Space Law, Policy and Ethics curriculum (2019-2022). She also launched and teaches Boston College Law School’s and Paris-Saclay University’s Space Law, Policy and Ethics courses. Haddaji specializes in International Space Threat Management (Planetary Protection/Planetary Defense). In parallel to her Consortium, teaching and SMPAG work, she currently serves as the Vice-Chair of the International Astronautical Federation’s Near Earth Object & Planetary Defense committee. Previously to her Planetary Defense work, Haddaji was the International Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) Planetary Protection Project Officer (2015-2019), a senior researcher in space economics at Harvard Business School (2020), a research fellow at Harvard Kennedy School and a visiting scholar at the GWU Space Policy Institute. She holds a PhD in Science and Technology Studies, and Master’s Degrees in Planetary Science (spe. oceanography), History/International Relations, Political Science, Law and Socio-Anthropology, from Brown University, La Sorbonne University and Bordeaux 1 University.
Sally O’Keeffe
Head Graphic and Web Designer
Sally O’Keeffe is a Canadian artist and recent graduate of Harvard College. She graduated magna cum laude in English & Art, Film, and Visual Studies. On a visit to the Kennedy Space Center as a child, Sally met an astronaut who told her she could go on a mission to Mars when she grew up. This inspired her dream of becoming an astronaut and pursuing an education in math and science— that dream changed in high school when she realized how much she loved art and writing. She has since studied the mediums of drawing, photography, painting, sculpture, and 16 mm film. During her time at Harvard, Sally began exploring graphic and UX design and worked on prototypes for iPhone apps. Outside of the Space Consortium, Sally works as an artist and freelance graphic designer.
Erin Olivieri
Communications, Outreach, and Fundraising Officer
Erin joins the Space Consortium as the volunteer Communications, Outreach, and Fundraising Officer with over a decade of event planning experience, which she is excited to bring to the space industry! She graduated from Harvard College in 2020 where she studied Government and Astrophysics as a first-generation college student. Erin now works in Constituent Services at the Massachusetts State Senate and TAs for Prof. Haddaji’s Space Law, Policy, and Ethics course at the Harvard Summer School. Her particular areas of interest are space debris mitigation and the international relations implications of space mining. Outside of the Consortium, Erin enjoys watching hockey, baking, and reading 1980s crime dramas.