Spring 2014 • Issue 01

Alumni profiles I New sports arena I Community research Spring 2014 • Issue 01 Published by UAA University Advancement

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ALUMNI PROFILES & SPOTLIGHTS FEATURES 5 CESSILYE WILLIAMS 6 ALUMNI CENTER 16 AIRLINES A steadfast leader at Clark New era, new home to support CENTER Middle School UAA’s 43,000 talented alumni 8 reasons you can’t stay away 8 SARA LOEWEN Literary alumna shares rural life ST. LAWRENCE ISLAND WINTERFEST 12 RESEARCH 20 UAA STYLE RACHEL KIDWELL 9 Together: Detecting unhealthy Thriving in the snow: Beards, Young engineer with taste for environmental contaminants broomball, snow-painting, adventure sculptures 10 ED MIGHELL Inupiaq artist presses stories into clay

DEPARTMENTS STAFF/FACULTY PROFILES 4 From the Editor 26 Class Notes Keith Hackett 24 11 Alumni Chapters 27 Lens on Campus New athletic director has the right tools, great people 25 Athletics Highlights

ON THE COVER The cherry and birch feature at UAA’s new Alumni Center symbolizes light streaming through an urban forest. The Center will open in September, but here’s what it looked like in February.

Spring 2014 • 3 UAA Alumni Profile

CESSILYE WILLIAMS

Published by UAA University Advancement

Editor Kathleen McCoy

Contributors Jamie Gonzales Kathleen McCoy Tracy Kalytiak Joey Besl Nate Sagan

Graphic Design James Finger Joe Nedland

All photography by Philip Hall unless otherwise noted Clark Middle School principal

To reach creates an orderly oasis for children UAA Alumni Relations: By: Tracy Kalytiak Main office line (907) 786-1942 Not so long ago, Clark Middle School assemblage of fobs, carabiners and newer yet another UAA alumnus, M.S. Global was just another exhausted-looking keys slung over her shoulder mingles Supply Chain Management (’04.) structure standing in the midst of companionably with the constellation of General office email: uaa_alumnirelations from the editor Mountain View, a community too often pearls and gold adorning her neck. She instills in students a sense of respect @uaa.alaska.edu used as a punchline in jokes about crime for themselves, for others and their still- Welcome to the first edition of our new magazine, UAA Alumni Spirit. and squalor. Classroom doors offer glimpses of pristine school. When Cessilye spotted a To learn more about UAA, visit children engaged in what they are scatter of peas and broccoli on the carpet www.uaa.alaska.edu. This twice-yearly print publication, along with its regularly updated online edition, signals a fresh Some of Clark’s students were lucky to making, writing and hearing. “I can’t of an otherwise-orderly hall, she didn’t approach to connecting with our impressive graduates. There are 43,000 of you living and working have enough love and support in their remember the last time I set my alarm,” hesitate or call a custodian. Even though around Alaska and across the . You fill roles as entrepreneurs, engineers, scientists, lives to move them toward happy futures. Cessilye said. “I’m up, ready to go, she was wearing heels and perfectly commercial fishermen, teachers, pilots, doctors, nurses, artists, policymakers, parents and leaders. But some students—too many—lived with great energy to get started. My creased gray slacks, Cessilye bent, scooped without nurturing parents, predictable barometer for the education we offer at the spilled vegetables into her hand and Besides telling your amazing stories, we’ll offer updates on groundbreaking work your alma mater meals, reassurance and discipline. Clark’s Clark is, would it be good enough for disposed of them in a nearby garbage initiates on behalf of a better Alaska and a better world. We want your Seawolf legacy to be a bright principal, Cessilye Williams (M.Ed., my own children?” container before resuming her walk. and guiding star as you advance toward your own dreams. Educational Leadership ’02), has spent 13 years working to better the lives, She’s as strict at Clark as she likely was “I’m proud of the transformation of our Our publication is influenced by a new editorial advisory board made up of UAA alumni. Thank education and community of 1,150 with her own children—UAA alumna school’s reputation,” she said. “I want to you Löki Gale Tobin (B.A. Psychology and Sociology ’06) J.R. Zufelt (Journalism and Public children in her care. Jazmine Williams, 24, B.B.A. Marketing be a partner in our students’ learning.” Communications student ’01-’06), Cassidy Davis (B.A. Journalism and Public Communications ’13, and son Scott, ’10) and Dan Carpenter (B.A. Journalism ’05). She walked the halls of the old Clark for 19, who attends Fort FOLLOW ONLINE: Cessilye Williams is the opportunity bridge to suc- six years, a brace of keys swaying from Valley State University cessful achievement for her talented students. This, then, is our beginning. Help us shape a publication her hand. And now she walks the halls in Georgia. (Cessilye’s Read more at greenandgold.uaa.alaska.edu/alumni-spirit/profiles/ you want to read. Your stories are our stories. We’re excited at the reborn $65-million Clark. An husband, Timothy, is to share them. Kathleen McCoy, Editor

Spring 2014 • 5 New Alumni Center makes home for alums on campus By: Jamie Gonzales

For alumni who want to come back the vibrant student community.” my success,” he said. “When I graduated, to campus, but aren’t sure where to I made a commitment to myself that start, your alma mater has your back. In Alumni Association board member someday I would do whatever I could to February, we opened the doors to the Leverette Hoover (B.S. Technology ’96) make a difference in supporting others’ new Alumni Center at UAA. Tucked sees his service on the board as a great academic adventures, and hoped that I between the UAA/APU Consortium way to give back to UAA and help give could make a difference.” Library circulation desk and Kaladi a leg up to UAA’s next generation of Brothers Coffee, the glassed-in space sees graduates. The new Alumni Center gives The university repurposed the Alumni thousands of students pass by every week. them a home for outreach activities. Center real estate from an alcove of little- used lockers and pay phones to create the “This is a beautiful home for alumni “I would like the board members to dedicated space for alumni. where we hope you’ll come visit us,” said volunteer at least 4–8 hours a month, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Alumni having open-door discussions with any If you’ve been looking for a good excuse Relations Rachel Morse (M.B.A. ’08). student who would like to stop by and to come back to campus, a visit to the new “Beyond this great space, though, what network with industry leaders to learn Alumni Center might be just the thing. we’re excited to offer you is a dedicated about different businesses,” Hoover If it’s been awhile since your last visit, staff of Alumni Relations professionals said. He sees board members and UAA’s friendly staffers can talk to you about ways and a dynamic Alumni Association alumni network as great resources to reconnect and give you the inside scoop board who are all committed to helping for students who want to know more about what’s happening on campus. you connect with each other and with about hiring practices, get an insider’s perspective on their résumés, receive “One of the great things about working FOLLOW ONLINE: Read more about a new era of mock interview coaching or just learn on campus is the energy students support for UAA’s alumni. what to expect after graduation. bring and the excitement young people Alumni Association www.uaa.alaska.edu/alumni/ figuring out their lives have,” Morse said. uaa-alumni-association.cfm “My counselors and professors, as “That excitement goes by our door all Alumni Relations www.uaa.alaska.edu/alumni/ well as industry partners and other day, every day. Who wouldn’t want to UAA Alumni Relations worked closely with ECI/Hyer to design an alumni center that is open, colorful and alive. students, were very engaged to ensure hang out here?” It features conference meeting space and casual corners for conversation. The space is always available to alumni. Stop in!

6 • Spring 2014 Spring 2014 • 7 UAA Literary Spotlight UAA Alumni Profile

Volleyball alumna has new passion: riding 500-pound sleds By: Jamie Gonzales

A select few celebrated Valentine’s Day this year at subzero in always- classy bunny boots and timeless black snow bibs. The Iron Dog Trail Class riders set the mood for their 1,108- mile trek with a symphony of revving snowmachine engines at the wind- scrubbed Big Lake starting gate.

UAA literary artist: Notes from Distinctive among the 10 teams of Trail Class riders were the three racers for a remote and abundant life Iron Dog Team BRA, the only women on the lake set to ride that day. Joining Sara Loewen earned her M.F.A. in for a crater of exposed rock from an UAA engineering and volleyball alumna creative nonfiction from UAA in 2012. old landslide that carried tub-sized Rachel Kidwell (B.S. Civil Engineering ’11) on their purple-and- The Alaska Motor Mushers Club introduced her to teammates In this excerpt from her book of essays, boulders a thousand feet to the pink-wrapped sleds were teammates Becca Charles and April Becca and April. About a year ago they started planning Gaining Daylight: Life on Two Islands beach. A caramel movement caught Lorah. (They strung together first initials to arrive at their head- their Iron Dog debut—going on training runs, working on published in the Alaska Literary Series by my eye. A bear sat on the ridge. Both turning team name.) their wrenching skills, retrofitting their machines, pushing the University of Alaska Press in 2013, we of us taking in the view. themselves in physical and strength conditioning workouts and witness a morning window on life at Uyak “We go from Big Lake to Nome,” Rachel said, while making finding sponsors. Bay, her family setnet site on the west side Who else has shared this view? last-minute checks of her machine. “The Pro Class riders go of Kodiak Island. Read more of her work Watched the sun set in June as if from Big Lake to Nome, Nome to Fairbanks.” To date, just one female team has completed the Iron Dog Pro online at the UAA Alumni Spirit website, it was following a game trail along Class race. Rachel thinks it’s about time for some more women including a Q & A on her work and life the mountains across the bay? A The Trail Class ride along the traditional Iditarod Sled Dog to break into the elite racing ranks. and an excerpt in her own voice. disappointed gold miner who left Race route is often a “trial run” for rookie snowmachine racers dishes and a rusted bed frame that to see if they feel ready to tackle the 2,000-mile Pro Class “There are some phenomenal riders in this state and I know Excerpt from ‘To Know a Place’ we hauled from the creek. Alutiiq To the west, millions of salmon once version of the Iron Dog. they could give these guys a run for their money. We’re hoping families who gathered the shells and returned to the Karluk River. Halibut that if they see we can do it, a lot more will get involved.” This morning I climbed down from bones that sift and settle under my and cod wander beneath sockeye and Rachel has been riding for just four years, but she jumped in the loft and looked out at gray sky and garden beds and raspberry patch. humpies skipping into the air and up with both feet. To read Rachel’s full engineer-by-day-snowmachine-racer-by- water; the cabin still in the mountain the bay. Daily, the sea steps back with a night story, check out the UAA Alumni Spirit website. You shadow that sunrise washes toward the Uyak is surrounded by five thousand waiter’s flourish. Butter clams, octopus, “After I got done playing volleyball at UAA, I started to can also find photos and videos of Rachel and Team BRA on shore. By midsummer, this hillside is a years’ worth of Alutiiq settlements—a littleneck clams, cockles, mussels, get into snowmachining,” she said. “I just kind of fell in the trail and learn how they fared on the 5-day race. dense green too thick to hike, except reminder that we live by our bellies. whelks, urchins, chitons. A salad of love with it. In volleyball, I was always People stayed here for the food seaweed is strewn along the beach— competitive. It’s a team organized FOLLOW ONLINE: Rachel Kidwell was an engaged UAA student who seized opportunity and fun FOLLOW ONLINE: Listen to Sara Loewen read an that washed in with tides and brown, popweed, bull kelp and ribbon. sport you can prepare for, so this is my all along her college career. excerpt and enjoy a Q & A along with the full narrative. seasons, for the traffic of otters, There’s an old saying on Kodiak: replacement in a sense and I think I Read more at greenandgold.uaa.alaska.edu/alumni-spirit/profiles/ seals, sea lions, whales and fish. When the tide is out, the table is set. might actually like it more.”

8 • Spring 2014 Spring 2014 • 9 UAA Alumni Profile

For this ceramic artist, it’s all about the story By: Kathleen McCoy

Artist Ed Mighell knows the my family did,” he said. “I thought, power of story. Every ceramic tile if they can do it, I can too.” Alumni at UAA: he shapes, presses and fires using his own special clay recipe from That degree led to a successful Join the movement Bootlegger Cove is part of his story. career. He even returned to Point Hope, this time on a water-sewer Whether it’s fun at the April board, approved by the UAA For a decade now, this UAA project for his mother’s village. He 3 “9 in the Spine” Alumni Alumni Association Board of alumnus (B.S. Civil Engineering came to appreciate the perks of his ParTee (yes, that was golfing Directors in February: ’92; B.F.A. Printmaking ’06) professional life: high salary, paid in the above-ground walkways • UAA Alumni Chapter has been selling his art at local vacations and a company car. at UAA!), or the growing markets and by commission. But of Houston, Texas (this success of the Green & Gold chapter, for now, also Mighell says buyers want more Still, something was missing. Gala raising scholarship funds The philosophy behind our the university’s esteem for its than something beautiful. “They Mighell describes feeling includes a lone alumna in for UAA students, the sense Dallas) chapters is based on the former students—that their buy the story” behind the work, frustrated and uninspired, often of momentum around UAA alumni-to-alumni connection. time at UAA is a recognizable he says. His education and career cooped up in a cubicle running alumni just keeps growing. • Seawolf Athletics (student- part of the university’s history. choices have shaped an evolving cost analyses. Tugging at him were athletes) These chapters are alumni led tale of artistic quest enriched by the art classes he’d always pursued, New chapters are signing • University Honors College and create incredibly useful Creating and joining a chapter cultural heritage. one a semester, as he progressed on every week. Nona Gunn, • Juneau Area Alumni networks between alums, is easy. The best way to get through engineering school with UAA Alumni Relations, students, the community, started is to contact Nona • Alumni for the His early life was shaped by an and his life after. Art professor is guiding the emerging professionals and UAA. Gunn (see below). She can Advancement of College Inupiaq mother and a Caucasian Garry Kaulitz finally suggested interest based on geography place you in a chapter or help Health Professionals ED MIGHELL father, employed with the Army he bundle all those credits into and academic or professional With the new Alumni Center you create one. To begin, Corps of Engineers. Though a B.F.A. a Bachelor of Fine Arts interest. • Justice Alumni now open, these engaged all you need are two alums Mighell was born in Harrisburg, degree in printmaking. • D.C. Area Alumni alumni and chapters have and Nona’s phone number! Pa,, he has toddler UAA has long enjoyed active a visible and beautiful new Chapter membership is free memories of visiting Mighell took that advice, and participation from two In the works are four more home on campus. The Alumni and alumni Wolfcards are free. Point Hope, his mother’s stepped off into the uncertainty existing chapters: chapters: Center (see story p. 6-7) is a Find out more online at www. home, and seeing seals of a whole new career, this time significant space that proclaims uaa.alaska.edu/alumni/. and rustic wooden boats as a full-time artist. He learned • College of Engineering • hauled up on the beach. of a once thriving ceramics • Aviation • Music FOLLOW ONLINE: Visit UAA Alumni Relations for links to our new tradition in his mother’s region— • San Antonio alumni Facebook page and our LinkedIn networking page. As a youngster, he faced useful, hand-shaped pots fired Just since January 2014, www.uaa.alaska.edu/alumni/ his mother’s early death amid burning embers. While seven others have come on • ANSEP and trailed his working that craftsmanship is now gone, father across the globe Mighell feels the connection as to Ethiopia, Yemen and he presses his designs in clay on Nona Gunn Jennifer Wisel Rachel Morse Egypt. After drifting a printing press. He shares this Chapters and groups Events Assistant Vice Chancellor through a number of jobs in his story and other details of Alaska (907) 786-1941 (907) 786-1701 (907) 786-1278 20s, he settled into earning a civil Native art with those drawn to [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] engineering degree his contemporary tilework. It’s all Nona is the person to call for information on joining Jennifer is the main contact for all the events we do Main office line: (907) 786-1942 FOLLOW ONLINE: Twice in his life, UAA degrees launched Ed Mighell in new at UAA. “It’s what part of his story. or starting a chapter and answers a lot of general (everything from meetings, Gala, 9 In the Spine and General office email: directions. Read more at greenandgold.uaa.alaska.edu/alumni-spirit/profiles/ questions. receptions.) [email protected]

10 • Spring 2014 Spring 2014 • 11 Gambell

Savoonga

S T. L AW R E N C E Northeast I S Cape AFS L A N D Uaa scientists, acat and community researchers

investigate environmental The red dots on the map indicate the location of military sites. The contaminants black dots indicate the location of By Kathleen McCoy the island’s villages.

The work of two UAA scrubbed by vigorous Bering scientists, Frank von Sea weather that it would Hippel and Loren Buck— seem invulnerable to modern, collaborating with community man-made scourges. members and an advocacy organization—may finally link Not so. A legacy of two Cold environmental contaminants War military sites abandoned to diseases and defects that in the 1970s, plus the have plagued the St. Lawrence surprising phenomenon of Island community of 1,500 environmental contaminants for decades. from around the globe that drift to the Arctic, have Just 38 miles from Russia turned this pristine and and 162 miles from Nome, wind-whipped landscape Photo by Samarys Seguinot-Medina, ACAT

Photo by TiffanySavoonga, St. Lawrence Immingan, Island St. Lawrence Island is so into a repository of leftover and PFCs (perfluorinated site at the Northeast Cape, chemistry known to be compounds, used to make located close to a popular dangerous to humans. fabrics stain-resistant and keep subsistence food-gathering Teflon pans slippery) long spot. PCBs (polychlorinated have been suspected in island biphenyl) from the abandoned illnesses and deaths. Alowa was joined by Pam military sites, along Miller, founder of Alaska with the drifting PBDEs Savoonga health aide Annie Community Action on (polybrominated diphenyl Alowa sounded the alarm in Toxics, and eventually by ethers, used to make furniture the late 1970s over concern Dr. David Carpenter, a New and electronics fire resistant) with the abandoned military York medical researcher Photo by John Postlethwait, University of Oregon

12 • Spring 2014 Spring 2014 • 13 The two UAA scientists and ACAT “It is really personal.” says Vi Waghiyi. “My dad died of colon cancer. used these early studies to secure a five- My mom had colon cancer. I have had three miscarriages myself.” year, $2.2-million RO1 research grant from the NIH to fund an extended who had done similar work with the “That was a wake-up call for the entire community-based research project. Their Mohawk Nation of Akwesasne, N.Y. planet,” says Miller. “That finding team includes village leaders on the St. They produced a study in 2002 that alone prompted the United Nations to Lawrence Island Working Group as well showed St. Lawrence Island residents negotiate the Stockholm Convention on as community researchers trained in had elevated levels of PCBs, with 7-9 Persistent Organic Pollutants (the POPS scientific sample collection. times as many in their blood as average treaty).” Initially 12 chemicals were Americans, due to their global transport banned; that list has grown to almost 25, Together they are checking contaminant and accumulation in Arctic subsistence including certain PFCs and PBDEs that levels in traditional foods, household foods. Residents who hunted and fished are now found on St. Lawrence Island. dust and human blood serum. Another near the Northeast Cape had the highest component is looking at freshwater fish, levels, showing that contamination from Since then, Miller and Vi Waghiyi, a the ninespine stickleback and the Alaska nearby military sites contributed to the Yupik leader, mother and grandmother blackfish, found in both contaminated elevated levels. from St. Lawrence and control sites on the island. Vi Waghiyi. “My dad died of colon Island, and others, have cancer. My mom had colon cancer. I Those findings were engaged in national and The team is comparing contaminant levels have had three miscarriages myself.” an eerie echo of international forums and investigating how these chemicals research that began in to ban environmental disrupt the health of stickleback and As dark as the impacts have been, von Canada in the 1980s. contaminants. blackfish. “We think that a lot of the Hippel, Miller and Waghiyi remain Researchers there Indigenous peoples health problems we see here are due to optimistic. They see a remedy. were surprised to find of the north are more endocrine disruption caused by these Vi Waghiyi Pam Miller that the Inuit women at risk due to their contaminants,” von Hippel said. The “You can prevent the inputs,” von on supposedly pristine Baffin Island geographic location and reliance on research team plans to report results to Hippel said. “And where you have a in eastern Canada had highly elevated subsistence foods, especially long-lived, the working group this summer. contaminated site, you can clean it up. levels of PCBs, pesticides and heavy high trophic animals like bowhead whale, It may take a long time, but there are metals. walrus and seal. The team is also doing work that wasn’t ways to clean it up.” part of the original grant and may yield significant findings, including The collaborative team hopes that an investigation of how contaminants the science will inform state, national affect gene expression in stickleback on and international policies to reduce St. Lawrence Island. Humans share 70 harmful chemical exposures. percent of their genes with bony fishes. If researchers locate the particular genes affected by the contaminants, they can Right: Doctoral student James Willacker helped teach quickly find out if humans also have those community researchers how to sample fish during a training program paid for by the NIH grant. genes, a tool that became available only a few years ago. “Then we have a target for how these contaminants are affecting human health [which] could lead to therapies,” von Hippel said.

The losses on St. Lawrence Island have been steep. “It is really personal,” says

The NIH grant provided funding to train community researchers in sampling techniques to advance the investigation. Photo by Samarys Seguinot-Medina, ACAT Photos this page by Samarys Seguinot-Medina, ACAT

14 • Spring 2014 Spring 2014 • 15 reasons to visit the new

UAA Athletic Director Keith Hackett You are a UAA super fan. Indoor, two-lane jogging track calls the new 197,000-square-foot and a 1,300-square-foot fitness Fans are assured a great view in Alaska Airlines Center (AAC) taking center. both the performance arena and the shape on campus a “communiversity” auxiliary gym. Maybe you’re into mall-walking, project. The new $109-million home for maybe you’re not. If not, here’s another Seawolf Athletics will host hundreds of “There isn’t a bad seat in the house,” indoor fitness option alumni can take athletic competitions, concerts, dances, Hackett said. advantage of. You’ll have the opportunity meetings, conferences, youth camps and to purchase a membership at the new commencements, annually. Although the “This will be the premier facility for fitness center, which will be open access doors won’t officially open until August Division II athletics in the NCAA in the for current students. 2014—and all signs point to an on-time, entire country,” Hackett said. “There is on-budget opening—UAA staffers are no place that will have a better venue to Go ahead, see if you can outrun a already fielding calls from community host Division II and volleyball 20-year-old. Fair warning: We field groups eager to stage their events in and Division I gymnastics—nowhere national champion runners on our track the new 5,600-seat performance arena close to this.” & field and cross country teams. and 500-seat auxiliary gym. Here are some reasons alumni may want to come UAA’s volleyball players will be the first FOLLOW ONLINE: Watch the new arena take shape in a 30-second time-lapse video. http://bit.ly/1hwOVS5 calling this fall: to debut in the performance arena.

16 • Spring 2014 Spring 2014 • 17 Wood-fired pizza, Bruce Springsteen. of touring shows that are contracted beer and wine. to perform in the venues they OK, we don’t know if The Boss manage. UAA’s Concert Board has All that activity cheering in is really coming to UAA, but the opportunity to work with Global the stands and panting on we can hope. UAA opted to Spectrum and connect with the likes of the jogging track are bound to make work with a professional management Springsteen, Jay Z, Beyoncé, Pink, Bon Commencement comes back to campus beginning December 2014, when UAA will start hosting two ceremonies each year. The you hungry. A brand-new full-service company to ensure visitors to the AAC Jovi, Kenny Chesney and the Harlem new arena has been dubbed a “communiversity” project for the restaurant will be built into the second have a top-notch experience. Globetrotters. support it will provide to both college and community athletics floor of the new AAC. An Alaska and events. company, NANA Management Services “We’re working with Global Spectrum. “We worked really hard with Sparling (NMS), has been awarded the contract They’re owned by Comcast,” down in Portland to make sure it was and promises to delight guests with Hackett said. “What we get from set up as a great facility for athletic director and part of the team summer grads. Both will be hosted in the snow to put UAA Athletics on the wood-fired pizzas, beer and wine 360 Global Spectrum is probably the concerts, for commencement, that’s overseen the progress of the AAC the AAC. map and get them those state-of-the- days a year, seven days a week, 11 a.m. most prominent arena and stadium for comedic acts and with from concept to reality. art training facilities and locker rooms to 11 p.m. Bonus: There’s management company on the planet— the tweak of some buttons, You really want to learn, once in the AAC. Say, is that an underwater a killer view from the over 200 venues across the world.” it becomes a great place Lucky you, your company and for all, what exactly a treadmill for rehabbing injured athletes? patio should you opt for to have a basketball game. bought a box suite. seawolf is. Yes, yes it is. outdoor dining during Management companies like Global It’s all done digitally,” said the balmier months. Spectrum are affiliated with a “stable” Kevin Silver, UAA’s associate If you’re on the nice list at work, Chances are you’ve met Spirit. Still undecided? Check out the web you just might get a chance You may have even carried a Flat Seawolf extras online for a virtual tour of the I to experience VIP viewing from one to your more far-flung destinations facility. A tour of even the unfinished B of the five box suites overlooking the (Traveling Spirit has his own Facebook center has changed more performance arena. On sale now for page). But if you were asked to explain than one mind. Q O M “The Seawolves Live Here” - Bronze Sculpture – A $25,000 a year with three-year contract the mythology, you might scratch your Showing new student- R P preference, the suites can seat 12, with head. The Legend of the Seawolf is set athlete recruits K Donor Recognition Wall – B Artifact - Athlete of the (current) Year – C full-service catering from NMS. The to greet visitors near the entrance of the around the AAC is F cost includes season passes to all home AAC, detailing the origins of UAA’s Silver’s new favorite L Historical Branding (Gym Floor) – D N games in the arena and dibs on show mascot. task. E National Tournaments – E tickets as they become available. Legends (Hall of Fame) – F F If you ever sported an official “They look around Coach ID – G Pomp and circumstance might Seawolf jersey, you’re invited and say, ‘Well, this really P Team Branding – H just reel you in. to the first-ever Seawolf complicates my decision,’” he said with Major ID – I Athletics Alumni Reunion. a laugh. Team Banners – J Roughly 30 years ago, UAA Commitment – K outgrew the We want to welcome our Seawolf When the doors open, Hackett said, O H Interactive Media - Heart of the Arena – L Sports Complex as a venue to host Athletics alumni back to campus Sept. “People are going to know that business N commencement. Starting in December 5–7, 2014. Come rub elbows with your and intercollegiate athletics at University Fitness – M C D G 2014, UAA will move to two old teammates and meet the newest of Alaska Anchorage have changed.” I Graphic Branding - Echo of the Seawolf – N A commencement ceremonies per year— generation of student-athletes. Tell them Digital Bulletin – O one for spring grads and one for fall and how you trudged uphill both ways in J Trophy/Artifact Displays of Excellence – P Retired Jersey Banners – Q Banners – R

18 • Spring 2014 Broomball, an ice game that borrows strategies from hockey, is the perfect way to let off winter steam during Winterfest.

In month five of every snow-encrusted winter, Seawolves like to shake things up with indoor and outdoor fun. This year’s festivities were Feb. 21 through March 1, and included a first-ever Winter Design Project on the Cuddy Quad.

Warming barrels lured visitors to the Cuddy Quad, where snow sculptures and snow painting invited personal expression.

Herminia Din, professor of art education, pioneered a 12-foot D.I.Y. “Flow of Color” sculpture made of recycled bottle caps.

20 • Spring 2014 Spring 2014 • 21 Outside, an army of tiny snowmen (no carrots for noses, please; too tempting for our campus moose), ice music, multi-colored frozen gloves, sculptures of all sorts.

Inside, facial hair galore at the 4th annual Beard and ’Stache Competition.

22 • Spring 2014 Spring 2014 • 23 ATHLETICS HIGHLIGHTS Compiled by Nate Sagan

PAST PRESENT The Alaska Airlines Center will have an overall seating capacity of approximately 5,000, with the option to resize for smaller events.

The Great Alaska Shootout will move into the AAC in 2014, while the new facility will also provide 1977-78: UAA becomes the opportunity to host NCAA an NCAA Division II member, regional and national events. As UAA’s men’s and women’s sponsoring hockey, men’s and Under the leadership of new a community arena as well, the basketball teams clinched their women’s basketball, riflery and head coach , AAC will be home to concerts, ninth and eighth consecutive skiing. the Seawolves have become graduations, trade shows and winning seasons, respectively, contenders again in the Western more. The 2015 MPSF Women’s with this year’s performances. 1978: UAA begins one of the Collegiate Hockey Association, Gymnastics Championships KEITH HACKETT most storied traditions in college winning their own Kendall are already slated for the Alaska basketball with the inaugural Hockey Classic and posting the Airlines Center. Great Alaska Shootout – originally program’s first winning record in known as the Sea Wolf Classic. 20 years. After five years at Buckner Field From Wolf Pack to Seawolf: House, the event moves to from 1983-2013. New Athletic Director moves UAA forward 1988: Men’s basketball By: Tracy Kalytiak The Seawolf volleyball team becomes the first Seawolf team to earned its fourth NCAA reach an NCAA title game, losing Six months ago, Keith Hackett walked the resonance of a caring gesture—he A Great Northwest Athletic Conference Tournament berth in the past five the championship tilt to UMass- into a just-subsiding maelstrom that sends handwritten thank-you notes, on indoor track and field competition trophy years in 2013, with local (South UAA’s ski team produced the Lowell in Springfield, Mass. ended with UAA’s hockey coach and Seawolf-emblazoned cards. celebrated UAA claiming four titles and Anchorage HS) star Katelynn RMISA men’s Nordic MVP athletic director being fired. sweeping the 5,000-meter podium. The Zanders earning All-America with senior Lukas Ebner, while 1990-92: The Seawolf hockey He works in a crevice of the Wells Fargo second trophy honored UAA’s women’s honors. sophomore Marine Dusser was team qualifies for three straight “I knew about the unrest, the Sports Complex, amid a soundtrack of soft cross country team, which captured the runner-up in the women’s The Alaska Airlines Center will NCAA tournaments, including an fractures,” Hackett said. “My bleats from his desk phone, buzzes from fourth place at the NCAA Women’s Nordic standings. With a full become a significant recruitment NCAA quarterfinals appearance tool for the UAA campus and responsibility was to come in and keep his cell phone and, every few seconds, a Cross Country Meet. 12-skier squad qualified for with a historic upset of Boston Seawolf Athletics. The new an open mind. I was prepared for the cheerful “ding” announcing another email NCAAs, the Seawolves are trying College in 1991. building will allow our coaches to opportunity, to try to move us forward. landing in his computer’s inbox. And there’s been other uplifting news for yet another top-10 national finish. recruit a higher caliber of student The past is prologue.” since Hackett arrived from Reno: The 2005: The Seawolf track and student-athlete and put our Hackett checks the phones, skims Seawolves hockey team ended the regular & field teams are officially teams in a position to compete The person who first thought of the through the inbox, managing responses season with a winning record for the established. Since then, UAA has FUTURE for championships on an annual adage, “A stranger is just a friend I he will make to each contact. first time since 1992-1993—16-14-4— produced four individual national The Seawolf cross country teams In August, the Seawolf Athletic basis. haven’t met yet,” probably had someone claiming the No. 6 seed in the Western champions and finished in the continued their dominance Department will move into the just like UAA’s ebullient new athletic He is confronting budget issues and, Collegiate Hockey Association playoffs. top 10 in multiple NCAA meets. in 2013, sweeping the men’s $109 million Alaska Airlines Center The Alaska Airlines Center will director in mind. most critical, knitting together closer ties and women’s team titles at the on the corner of Providence and become a gathering place for with student-athletes, alumni and the “I have the right tools, great people to 2008: UAA’s men’s and GNAC Championships. The Wellness drives on campus. The many other campus, community Hackett walks to on-campus Anchorage community. If two gleaming work with,” Hackett said. “Whatever women’s basketball teams make women’s team also went on to AAC will be the competitive arena and statewide events—including appointments—smiling, waving, offering additions to Hackett’s office are any circumstances are, they’re nothing we simultaneous runs to the Final earn the NCAA West Region for men’s and women’s basketball, high school state championships a warm handshake. Appointments indication, however, the gears of forward can’t fix. We’re going to figure out a way Four, becoming just the second title and finished a program- volleyball and gymnastics, as well —and allow Athletics and the rest pack his calendar, yet Hackett knows motion seem to be meshing. to do this.” school in NCAA Division II history best fourth place at the NCAA as a training facility for all other of the campus to showcase what to accomplish that feat. Championships. Seawolf sports. UAA is all about.

24 • Spring 2014 Spring 2014 • 25 This page of alumni updates was compiled by Joey Besl, new to UAA as an alumni CLASS NOTES communications specialist. Going forward, we hope you’ll file your moments of pride and achievement with us at the link at the bottom of this page, so we can share your success. LENS ON CAMPUS

1992 own plays have been He is also busy putting a assuming her current role. spring and plans to apply produced across the book together about his She is a Doyon shareholder for high school English Bobbie Sue Wolk, B.B.A. country and internationally, time in Thailand, where he and resides in Anchorage teacher positions for the Accounting, has moved and his play Six Dead Bodies worked as a home-school with her husband and son. fall. her accounting and Duct-Taped to a Merry-Go- teacher for a traveling executive coaching Round was published in American family. business, Rosewood LLC, Best American Short Plays 2004 2007 back to Anchorage after 2010-2011. For the past Judy Staveley, B.S. Jacinda Walker, B.A. living in Juneau for the decade, he has produced 1998 Biological Sciences, taught Journalism and Public past seven years. She has the biannual 24-hour Jean Bundy, B.F.A. Art, is several years at UAA before Communications, owned and operated her theater project, the Alaska completing an online Ph.D. continuing her studies at currently works as a sales business for 20 years. Overnighters, with TBA course through the Institute Johns Hopkins University. representative for Staples Theatre in Anchorage. for Doctoral Studies in the She lives with her family Advantage business-to- 1997 Visual Arts. She has traveled in the Baltimore area business sales. She now to Florence, Berlin and Paris and teaches biological lives in Beaverton, Ore. and Dawson Moore, B.A. 1997 through the program, and sciences and forensics will return to Alaska this fall Theatre, runs the Dirk Willis, B.Ed. Elementary plans to start her thesis on at Frederick Community for her first ultramarathon, Last Frontier Theatre Education, is the site the art of Winston Churchill College in Maryland. Judy the Resurrection Pass Ultra Conference in Valdez, supervisor for a Boys & Girls in the next year. She writes mentored the hockey and 50-mile race. at Prince William Sound Club program at Turnagain art criticism for Town Square gymnastics teams while Community College. His Elementary in Anchorage. 49 on Alaska Public Media teaching at UAA and her and recently covered son, only 2 years old when 2008 the Whitney Biennial art they left Alaska, still skates Heather Cavanaugh, show in Manhattan. in a Seawolves jersey on his M.B.A., currently hockey team in Baltimore. serves as director of 2003 She recently launched a Marketing and Corporate magazine, The Platform, Communications at Nicole Borromeo, featuring a column Alaska Communications. B.A. Justice, recently from UAA classmate Dr. Additionally, she acts as joined the Alaska Kristen Eastman (B.S. president of the Public Federation of Natives Biological Sciences, Relations Society of as general counsel. ’04). Her magazine America, Alaska Chapter After obtaining her is available online at and recently earned juris doctor degree theplatformmagazine.com. Accreditation in Public from the University of Relations (APR) from the Washington School Public Relations Society of of Law, she returned 2004 America. to Alaska to work Jason Eisert, B.A. History Alumni Stephen Trimble ‘08, Susan LaBelle ‘84, ‘97 and Sophie Minich as a law clerk in Juneau ’89 were honored at last fall’s Alumni Relations Green & Gold Gala. This ’04, B.A. English ’10, is year’s Gala will be held in the new Alaska Airlines Center, the first event and a legal associate graduating with an M.F.A. to take place in this new facility. in Anchorage before and M.A.T. from UAA this

Did you get a new job? A promotion? Did you join the service or get deployed overseas? On the home front, have you Submit a celebrated a wedding or the addition of a new member to your clan? Your UAA family wants to know. UAA’s award-winning Seawolf Debate team met Yale Debate April 20, 2014, at East High School before an audience of 600, to argue: class note Please submit your news online at this link: greenandgold.uaa.alaska.edu/alumni/class-notes/ “No public funds should go to support competitive athletics in public education.” View a video of the debate here: Any questions? Give UAA Alumni Relations a call at (907) 786-1942 or email [email protected]. greenandgold.uaa.alaska.edu/sw-yale-debate/2014/03/26/uaa-yale-debate-video/

26 • Spring 2014 Non-Profit Organization US Postage PAID Permit No 107 Office of Advancement Anchorage AK University of Alaska Anchorage 3211 Providence Drive, ADM 236 • Anchorage, AK 99508