Fall 2015 • ISSUE 04

UAA IN

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHTS I PEACE CORPS SERVICE I UAA DRAMA 2.0 Fall 2015 • ISSUE 04 Published by UAA University Advancement

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ALUMNI SPOTLIGHTS FEATURES DEPARTMENTS 6 ALONZO PATTERSON 10 GREEN & GOLD GALA 4 From an Alumnus “What we do speaks about who Glittery night of scholarship support. we are as a people…” 5 Welcome 12 UAA IN THE ARCTIC 24 Alumni News Briefs 8 KATHERINE JERNSTROM Climate change, coastal erosion, “I learned at a young age that you corridor development, public health, 25 Don’t Miss have to be bootstrappy.” education, arts and culture. 26 Class Notes 9 KERRY BOYD 16 UAA DRAMA 2.0 27 Lens on Campus No roads lead to her Yukon- An alum now chairs the department Koyukuk district schools, so this with a cast of new faculty. superintendent fl ies. 18 NEW ENGINEERING 20 IN THE PEACE CORPS BUILDING Ebola threatened, and one Features “engineering on display” semester of French was not and more than 20 labs. enough. 22 MEETING MONGOLIA Channel for mutual exchanges.

The online magazine can be found here: tinyurl.com/AlumniSpirit.

ON THE COVER Aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy off the coast of Barrow, UAA scientists Jeff Welker and Eric Students and faculty take in ca eine and conversation at Klein, representing the Arctic Domain Awareness Center, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security Center of an airy, second- oor gathering place in the Engineering & Excellence housed at UAA, used an isotope analyzer to “sniff” the Arctic air for signs of carbon this summer. Industry Building, which opened this fall. (Collection of Dr. Pablo Clemente-Colon, chief scientist National Ice Center.)

Fall 2015 • 3 Editor Kathleen McCoy

Writers Kathleen McCoy Tracy Kalytiak Joey Besl Michelle Saport

Graphic Designer Brett Rawalt

Sta Photographer Philip Hall

UAA Alumni Association Board of Directors Mark Filipenko, B.B.A. ’00 Leverette Hoover, B.S. ’97 This capstone team designed dashboard displays for the new engineering building. Students from left are Sukjin (Jimmy) Yoon, Brent The UA Board of Regents named Jim Johnsen, left, as UA president Andrea Story, B.B.A. ’95 Gonzales, and Brian J. Kapala. Siemens’ Daniel Hart is second from the left. (Photo by Philip Hall/University of Alaska Anchorage) on Sept. 1, following the retirement of Patrick Gamble. Charles Gunther, B.A. ’91 Drew Cason, B.A. ’13 and B.S. ’13 FROM THE CHANCELLOR Beth Mader, B.A. ’94 FROM AN ALUMNUS FROM THE PRESIDENT Lea Bouton, M.A.T. ’10 It is exciting to see the opening of the new UAA Engineering & Industry I’m excited. We are o to a great year at UAA – you, our alumni, are Kersten Johnson-Struempler, Building. This new space is a living lab for future Alaska engineers (page 18-19), an integral part of our past, current and future successes. M.Ed. ’03 where industry partners will mingle with students, share expertise and pose I’m excited for the future of our university, and the future Amy Hart, B.S.N. ’08 real-world problems that need innovative solutions. of our great state. Coming to you from the business We o cially opened the new Engineering & Industry Megan Moore, B.A. ’08 community, I know our knowledge base at the university Building that will support the ongoing need for qualifi ed Rachel Morse, M.B.A. ’08, engineering professionals in Alaska. The momentous AVC Alumni Relations During my time at UAA, professors, counselors, industry partners and fellow is a great economic engine, a solution seeker and an idea students supported my success. When I graduated, I made a commitment that someday I would generator capable of powering our state toward its occasion was made possible by steadfast support and To reach support others’ academic endeavors. bright future. collaboration between our entire UAA community, UAA Alumni Relations: industry and government. Main o ce line The opportunity arose when alumnus Daniel Hart (UAA Engineering ’08) and I developed a plan I am honored to say hello to you in your own alumni (907) 786-1942 to work with a student team on its senior project. The team successfully designed a user interface magazine. I look forward to meeting many of you as we This year’s Green & Gold Gala has already raised $72,000 uaa_alumnirelations that monitors energy usage—to include electricity, water and gas—as well as other building data. share the resilience of community and creativity that is for student scholarships and more pledges and matches @uaa.alaska.edu Check out and try the interactive displays when you walk through the new facility. a hallmark of Alaska. And for the record, I send forth a are still coming in. Thank you for your generous support! spirited Seawolf H-O-W-L! Your continued involvement in our programs and I am proud of my own UAA degree and for the chance to give back. Thank you for supporting UAA. activities helps keep UAA vibrant and resilient.

Jim Johnsen, President Leverette G. Hoover Tom Case, Chancellor B.S. Technology, ’97 President, UAA Alumni Association General Manager, Siemens Industry Inc.-Alaska

Fall 2015 • 5 Nearly 78 years ago, a Louisiana UAA A  P  longshoreman and his gospel singer wife welcomed a baby son into their lives.

‘what we do speaks about who we are’

6 • Fall 2015 Fall 2015 • 7 UAA A  P  UAA A  P  SHE LEARNED EARLY TO FUSING EDUCATION job at the district, administering a 1,200-student statewide correspondence school and nine village schools sprinkled “BE BOOTSTRAPPY” WITH NATIVE WISDOM over a remote sprawl of land west of Fairbanks that’s larger than the state of Washington. To someone fi rst meeting her, Katherine Jernstrom A new superintendent can expect to grapple with a host of appears as polished and serene as the chic appointments challenges when he or she fi rst takes the helm—needing to It’s impossible to drive to the communities she oversees, so in The Boardroom, a coworking haven she helped launch engage students in learning while removing obstacles to their Boyd fl ies out to visit teachers, administrators, parents and in Anchorage. success, attract and retain highly qualifi ed teachers and meet students in Allakaket, Minto, Kaltag, Manley Hot Springs, demanding educational requirements. Huslia, Nulato, Koyukuk, Hughes and Ruby. But look closer and you’ll see a woman who plays softball on what she calls a “beer-drinking league,” who crafted a Kerry Boyd faced a simple yet much more formidable Maintaining those close connections is essential to Boyd’s retaining wall when she was 13 and later worked with at-risk dilemma, however, when she fi rst stepped into her job as goal of integrating school and community to provide a kids at a wooden boat museum in Seattle. superintendent for the Yukon-Koyukuk School District. high-quality, culturally infused education for the district’s children. “The communities are very supportive,” Boyd In 2009, she sold everything and explored the glories, “The well in one of my villages, Allakaket, it just stopped said. “They want to help, want their children to have a squalor and cacophany of India, Nepal and Southeast working,” Boyd said. “They didn’t have water to the good education and, after graduation, be prepared, but on Asia—a journey that brought her and her future husband to school, didn’t have toilets, had to use outhouses. It was very the other hand also want to make sure they don’t lose their the spires of the Himalayas and acquainted Jernstrom with challenging for the students and sta . Most of the homes Native ways of doing things and maintain their values.” the miseries of altitude sickness and food poisoning. didn’t have water either—students and their families had to use honey buckets. We would haul water in for them and Alaska Native culture is incorporated into the curriculum. “That trip taught me to be less of a priss, not care about bring sanitizers, because when you don’t have water, diseases Teachers take children to see elders and students spend a half- hygiene as much,” she laughed. can happen. I feel the state should make sure every resident hour each day exploring the words of their native tongue. has water. That should be fi rst priority.” Jernstrom’s dad dropped out of high school, joined the Air “It might not seem a lot, but they’re learning their Force, earned his GED and began working for Boeing. Nearly 10 years later, Allakaket has two wells and Boyd— language,” Boyd said. “They want to make sure their UAA M.Ed. Educational Leadership, ’01—is still on the children are still exposed to that.” “My dad, without a degree of any sort, rose up,” said Jernstrom of her father, who now lives in China (her mother is a nurse). “I learned at a young age that you have to be bootstrappy. There’s lots of people with really great ideas. What sets me apart are implementation, grit and follow-through.”

The idea for The Boardroom emerged when Jernstrom and co-founder Brit Szymoniak got together for a drink in 2013. “We were at Crush, drinking wine, talking about what we wanted to do,” she said. “We realized Anchorage had a lack of meeting space that was casual but comfortable.”

They hit upon the term “coworking” and, fi ve months later, opened The Boardroom, which they hope will ignite ideas, collaboration and social change.

“It’s a lot of fun developing a business where you get to be around smart, creative, cool people all day long,” said Jernstrom, M.P.A. ’14. “It can be an emotional rollercoaster, but you could never do anything di erent after you have the creative control to decide what you want your life to be.” Kerry Boyd stands with her team of principals and directors at an August retreat in Fairbanks. (Photo by Monique Musick)

8 • Fall 2015 Fall 2015 • 9 Green & Gold Gala returned to the Alaska Airlines Center on Sept. 26, GREEN & GOLD 2015, for a black-tie evening in support of student scholarships.

The annual Gala raises funds for the UAA Alumni Association scholarship endowment. The fund started in 1985 with a gift of $25 and has now provided $170,000 in the last six years alone. This past year, in recognition of rising costs and tightening budgets, the fund quadrupled its levels of giving, providing $48,000 in annual support to four students from each of the university’s six colleges.

Viorica Marian

The Gala also recognized three outstanding Alumni of Distinction—Emerging Leader Mistee Davis A.A.S. ’06, B.A. ’12, Alumni Humanitarian Georgia DeKeyser M.S. ’97, M.S. ’99, and Alumni of Achievement Viorica Marian, B.A. ’94.

Fall 2015 11 Georgia DeKeyser • researchers, students tackle its problems and promises

From a dissolving coastline—to offshore oil reserves as Ecologist Douglas Causey is tracking and dissecting seabirds gilded as Prudhoe Bay. in the north Pacific to understand how they’re adapting to uaa’s global warming. He’s finding changes in diet, and evidence of From landlocked minerals that could power the world’s cell ingested plastic. NPR’s Weekend Edition documented his work. phones for a century—to the drive for a northern port for shipping them to the world. Linked by areas of interest From troubled rural schools—to dreams of indigenous UAA is an active member in the University of the Arctic, a self-directed learning. network of universities and research institutes focused on footprint educational exchanges and Arctic research. Scholars gather From kinship and artistic sensibilities shared across the around major subject areas like business, law and politics, North—to securing America’s northern shoulder against engineering and technology, health and education. Many human and natural catastrophe. UAA faculty play key roles here.

From the health and well-being of the one— Rhonda Johnson is active in the Congress on Circumpolar to the health and well-being of the many. Health as well as the UArctic health and well-being network. in the She’ll guest edit a special edition on “Extreme Epidemiology” These are the fierce challenges and tremendous paydays for the Royal Society of Public Health. embedded in the Arctic.

With President Barack Obama’s charmed late summer visit above the Arctic Circle, to the United States chairmanship of the eight-nation Arctic Council for the next two years, the arctic world’s focus turns north, and to Alaska. Real-world science UAA’s role is critical. Specific examples abound.Jeff Welker’s Arctic ecology teams have documented climate change in plant life, effects of varying snow depth, methane release and more in Alaska, Greenland and Svalbard, Norway. For his research, Welker was awarded the distinguished Fulbright U.S. Arctic Chair in 2012.

Civil engineering professor Tom R avens is modeling storm surges in Norton Sound, and hopes to expand his work to Nothing says global warming like palm trees in Barrow, right? The leaves are whale baleen, the trunks are driftwood. (Photo by Diane Hirshfield/UAA) Alaska’s full coastline.

Frank Von Hippel’s ecotoxicology teams joined with Marie Lowe works to understand community viability community researchers on St. Lawrence Island to study in Western Alaska by identifying youth and young adults human impact from chemical contaminants—those drifting across the Bering Sea region who have pursued post- north and those abandoned by the military. The New York secondary educational opportunities. The overarching Times documented his work on its front page. research question is: Do opportunities in post-secondary Red squares indicate areas of UAA-focused education for youth contribute to the viability of Bering research, collaboration or service related to Sea communities and way of life? Arctic and sub-Arctic issues. 12 • Fall 2015 Fall 2015 • 13 And in May, the King of Norway came to formalize Conflict and compromise connections between UAA and Norway’s University of the If or when the next boom happens, Jim Murphy and UAA’s Arctic in Tromsø. Both universities’ leaders championed other experimental economists want Arctic decision makers the wide variety of connections in science, engineering and to be ready. They have joined forces with counterparts at public health already forged by individual professors and the Arctic University of Norway in Tromsø to co-create their academic colleagues. Leaders promised a commitment curriculum for a shared class on conflict and cooperation in to finding new areas of mutual interest—from business to the Arctic. They’ll test a pilot this spring. fine arts to indigenous culture. The Norwegians say they value economic experiments as Public health, rural education, resource management, climate a research and teaching tool and hope to duplicate UAA’s change, artistic expression, resilience and sustainability, success. After a decade, Alaska’s lab is ranked in the top 10 Northern well-being—all important issues in the Arctic percent worldwide. and sub-Arctic—have been influenced by the work of UAA faculty and students. Ultimately, plans call for both universities to offer the course, professors from both to teach segments, and students Here is a brief look at evolving focus areas for UAA in Tromsø and Anchorage to overcome a 10-hour time researchers and their students. Graduate student Cassandra Gamm works at Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, using A GoPro camera attached to a balloon captures this view of the U.S. Coast Guard difference to run experiments and collaborate on projects. stable isotopes to examine evidence of shrub encroachment. (Photo courtesy Jeff Cutter Healy when UAA researchers Jeff Welker and Eric Klein were aboard, to “sniff” out carbon with a specialized isotope analyzer. (Photo courtesy USCG.) Funding will allow for professor and student exchanges Welker/UAA) Emerging Arctic corridor this spring. Other UAA researchers attend, present at, organize and Jeff Welker and Eric Kline, biologists and scientists with the host major international conferences on Arctic issues. This Arctic Domain Awareness Center at UAA, in August took an While the world anticipates commercial and trade corridors This connection is just one example of growing links fall, local sessions included a Polar Law Conference on legal isotope analyzer aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy opening in the Arctic, UAA civil engineer professor Andrew between UAA and Tromsø, as well as other Northern issues, the 2015 Arctic Science Conference on ecosystem to “sniff” carbon shifts in the Arctic. Findings here could Metzger is imagining how the essential infrastructure universities. Scholars across the North embrace their many challenges from resource development and Relate North reflect changes in ocean productivity and contaminants might come about in lean fiscal times, perhaps through existing collaborations, but promise to identify new ones 2015 on defining the role art plays in a Northern sense of from fuel/oil leaks and discharges, a technology the U.S. a port authority model. Without a viable deep-water port of mutual interest; everything from business to fine arts to culture, community and identity. Organizers for Relate Coast Guard could use in transportation corridors and oil- and functional search-and-rescue operations, commercial indigenous culture. Follow UAA’s Arctic activities at North 2015 include UAA’s Herminia Din, Sean Licka, exploration environments. interests (like rich mineral deposits identified in Northwest http://www.uaa.alaska.edu/arctic. Steve Godfrey and Maria Williams. Alaska as early as the 1950s) are frozen in place.

A year ago with Diane Hirshberg’s guidance, UAA hosted Alaska’s next big boom Arctic-FROST, a gathering of social science scholars from across the globe to focus their expertise on one question: Metzger calls these commodities still in the ground in How can Arctic peoples survive and thrive in a time of rapid Northwest Alaska our next big boom, just waiting to environmental and economic change in their region? The happen. “It’s absolutely huge,” says Metzger. “And oil is not focus was on human resilience and adaptation with a drive to the biggest. It’s No. 2.” answer a key question: What does sustainability mean to the Arctic community? Hirshberg will also attend Arctic Council Even though oil doesn’t top his list, he says publicly available meetings as a member of the International Arctic Social information places the Chukchi Sea potential at more than Sciences Association. a million barrels a day for 40 years. Metzger was among those funded by the federal government to look at design requirements for offshore structures in the Chukchi and National and global player Beaufort seas, work he anticipates will influence policy Just last year, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security related to offshore development. established a center of excellence at UAA, called the Arctic Domain Awareness Center, a funding stream aimed at His Northwest corridor ideas will be a part of the November Relate North 2015, a University of the Arctic sustainable art and design symposium 2015 edition of Alaska Business Monthly’s special section on developing technological tools to assist the U.S. Coast at UAA Nov. 4-6, asks what role art can play in communicating challenges in the Guard as it monitors our coastline for human and North. An ice sculpture from a UAA Winter Design project says it in a word. (Photo natural resources. natural catastrophes. by Herminia Din/UAA)

14 • Fall 2015 Fall 2015 • 15 included Ira Perman (later of the Anchorage Concert Association and the THEATRE ALUMNUS BUILDS ON UAA’S RICH DRAMA LEGACY Alaska Forum for the Humanities) as the house manager and Nancy Harbour (now president and COO of the If there’s a metaphor for what’s going on But Anteau never lost touch with UAA, BACK STORY Alaska Center for the Performing Arts within the walls of UAA’s Theatre and and came back to teach his passion Yes, we did, remembers former chair downtown) as an administrator. Dance Department this year, a newborn in the mid-2000s. He now replaces a Hood, checking back into UAA by might fi t. department chair who held that job for phone from his current position as dean “What you had was this team of arts a decade. of the College of Fine Arts at Indiana professionals, all of us very young,” said The actual baby is Hunter Hewitt, born University of Pennsylvania. He enjoyed Hood, and all with terminal degrees in July. Dad Ty Hewitt started at UAA THE “KIDS” TAKE OVER pulling the birth story of UAA theatre qualifying them to become faculty. this fall, teaching acting. What’s happening at UAA’s Department from his memory banks. of Theatre and Dance is a massive Kent had a plan. According to Hood, he A few offi ce doors down, another new changing of the guard. The legacy Flashback to 1976, Hood said. A had a conversation with the dean of arts professor, Brian Cook, joined UAA faculty who built the program— professional staff ran the Wendy and sciences, “and somehow out of that to teach directing and theatre history. including the UAA Fine Arts building Williamson Auditorium; no theatre came a department of theatre.” The new Come spring, he’ll direct one—the that opened in 1986—are now all gone. department existed. academic department gave the Wendy’s ambitious Stalking the Bogeyman, professional staff the chance to become based on Alaska playwright David Some, like Michael Hood, Frank Bebey, The Wendy’s director was Everett tenure-track faculty. UAA’s production of M. Butterfl y from the 2014 season. Holthouse’s childhood story of Leroy Clark and John Rindo, have been Allen Kent. Hood worked as assistant sexual abuse. gone a while. The fi nal big sweep— technical director and stage Times were indeed heady. Hood, retirements of Fran Lautenberger, David manager. Other familiar names married and with two small children, Eventually Kent left, and a somewhat national ACTF honors. UAA students A third addition, Nova Cunningham, Edgecombe and Tom Skore— remembered going from an annual stunned Hood was in charge. “I was performed at the Kennedy Center in teaches acting, script analysis and fi nished last May. Poof! The salary of $14,000 as Wendy staff to just three years out of grad school Washington, D.C. community engagement in the arts. “kids”—UAA’s newer faculty— $28,000 as a tenure-track professor. myself,” Hood remembered. “We were suddenly got the keys to the “I bought a pool table,” he laughed. ambitious as hell.” “Half the arts organizations in this castle, a prospect they fi nd both “It was fantastic!” state are run by UAA theatre alumni,” sobering and exciting. Hood picked up the charge for a new said Dawson Moore, himself an But about two years later, the arts building, creating a coalition alumnus and director of the Last Anteau is quick to credit Wendy was more formally tied among theatre and arts professors that Frontier Theatre Conference at UAA’s legacy theatre faculty. to the community college. Its resulted in the current 104,000-square- Prince William Sound College. He cites their mentorship, professional staff had an option: foot, $27 million Fine Arts Building Another is Bostin Christopher, lately Dan Anteau wisdom and abundant Stick with the Wendy or move on that opened in 1986 with, as Hood put of Perseverance Theatre and now an navigational skill, not to to the faculty it, “the most beautiful thrust stage in assistant professor of acting at Virginia Even the chair of the department, Dan mention a wealth opportunity the world.” Commonwealth University. Anteau, is fresh to his role, though as of talent and with UAA. a UAA alumnus, he’s doing a bit of expertise. After Some chose LEGACY But there are many, many more. an encore. academia. Check out tinyurl.com/AlumniSpirit all, they built this Hood and the others who joined for additional news of theatre alumni house, he says. him built a competitive department Anteau graduated from UAA with a and classic images from some of the that toured the state and competed bachelor’s in theatre in the mid-’90s. department’s many productions. regionally and nationally. UAA He went on for an M.F.A. in lighting productions have won 14 regional design at the University of Illinois at And remember: All UAA alumni receive American College Theater Urbana-Champaign, taught in Hawaii a 10 percent discount on theatre tickets Festival honors. In 1988-’89, and saw his lighting designs go up in purchased online by using the code: Tracers, a Vietnam War-era play New York, Alaska, Minnesota and “UAAlumni.” directed by John Rindo, won even Africa.

The cast of Tracers, a UAA production that won the 1988 16 Fall 2015 Fall 2015 17 • regional and national American College Theater Festival award. • Things, thankfully, have changed. The new 81,500-square- foot building triples the amount of engineering space on campus, and the fi nal product is a major benefi t for current students. Lab designs focus on undergraduate teaching, as opposed to graduate research, meaning research opportunities are much more available for interested undergrads than at other state universities.

The entire building is a classroom—even the staircase was designed with a four-story gap so students could drop materials for impact tests. Expanded -30°C cold rooms The new engineering building includes a allow for larger arctic research projects while massive fl umes strong fl oor for testing breaking points. let coastal engineers test materials. Student clubs have a cavernous two-story space to build their electric dune reformatted with circular tables to foster a collaborative buggies and concrete canoes that compete at nationwide learning environment and, as with the new EIB, the building’s contests. There are 3-D printers and small-scale wind tunnels redesign will increase the focus on distance education. and the entire building is “wired to the hilt,” as assistant professor Scott Hamel explained. Additionally, elements of All in all, the building is a boon to UAA’s constantly the building’s inner workings are exposed as “engineering expanding crew of future engineers. Labs sprawl across the on display,” allowing professors to show students how course ground fl oor, allowing for constant collaboration among materials are in play all around them. projects, while a comfortable second-fl oor lounge provides a sun-soaked respite near the faculty offi ces. A new bridge When asked for the biggest benefi t to students, Hamel spanning Providence Drive connects to the Health Sciences discussed the ability to build off his lectures. “We didn’t have Building, creating an additional student lounge space on NEW BUILDING the facilities or the space to do that before,” he noted. “Now, campus. in my steel design class, I can show them what it’s like when a beam fails as opposed to just drawing a picture.” But it’s the hands-on involvement students should be most excited about. “There weren’t nearly as many opportunities OPENS DOORS And not just students are benefi ting. “There’s a huge to experience engineering before, and that [gap] was demand for a facility like this in the state,” Metzger multiplied if you were interested in research,” Hamel noted. PHOTO BY TED KINCAID BY PHOTO added, citing Alaska’s one-and-only strong fl oor that has “Now, if you’re interested in doing undergraduate research, already netted corporate contracts. Before the EIB opened, there will be huge opportunities.” FOR ENGINEERING PROGRAM companies would ship multi-ton projects out of state to test the load-bearing abilities of their materials. Now, they can just bring them to campus, saving time, fuel and money and No square foot is spared in the new Engineering & could no longer hold the exploding number of engineering giving UAA students hands-on paid research opportunities. Industry Building (EIB), which opened to students this majors. For context, in 2000, the College of Engineering’s fall. Located just yards away from the Student Union, the enrollment was 305 students; 15 years later, enrollment had “It’s very unusual to start doing research the instant the new central building highlights engineering in action, at quadrupled to more than 1,250 registered students last fall. building opens,” Hamel laughed, citing the immediate fl urry every opportunity. From the exposed systems to the wall of activity, even as contractors put the fi nishing touches monitors to the big fi berglass golf ball on the roof (it’s called Recent graduates may remember the program’s evident on the building. Faculty and student researchers moved in a radome, used for testing radio frequency equipment), the growing pains. Labs were repurposed for multiple disciplines months before the offi cial opening, just to get a head start. new facility is an eye-catching—and much-needed— (as well as storage) and students squeezed inside, sometimes academic addition. leaning against workbenches while taking notes for class. As the EIB opened, the original Engineering Building “There would be no place to sit,” recalled assistant closed its doors … but only temporarily. The former The original Engineering Building fi rst opened in 1983, professor Andrew Metzger, who often had his students building reopens next fall with even more benefi ts for future engineers. Geomatics students will have enough space to A fl ume, like a tiny river, allows engineers to test when both the College of Engineering and UAA were much huddle around equipment in small groups so everyone sediment deposits and hydrokinetic energy. smaller operations. As enrollment grew, the original building could observe a test. move their surveying projects indoors. Classrooms will be

18 • Fall 2015 Fall 2015 • 19 terminal, we were covered in dust heads, then pushed me toward my new local language called Moore, and the MY EXPERIENCE and sweat. home and closed the door. only thing I could remember in that IN BURKINA FASO language was, “Mam nonga benga”— By Alejandra Buitrago After a week of orientation, we were My house had two rooms with clay “I like beans.” sent to live three months with host walls, a blue tarp roof, table, chair, In July 2014, I was invited to join the families in villages on the outskirts of trunk and a bed with a mosquito net. Go online to tinyurl/AlumniSpirit to Peace Corps as a community economic Léo, south of Ouagadougou. I went to “Deep breaths, this is only temporary.” read more about Alejandra’s Peace Corps development volunteer in Burkina Zoro to stay with the Sawadogo family. As I lifted my mosquito net to crawl experiences, including her eventual Faso, a Colorado-sized country in West I met my host father under a mango into this bed fi t for a World War II work with a women’s organization Africa. tree, watching cautiously as he strapped infi rmary, I crumbled. In the middle of in Dieganao in southwest Burkina, my three pieces of luggage onto his my bed was a giant scorpion. promoting income-generating activities As I got off the plane, I learned that bicycle, while a little girl carried my to stimulate the local economy, and her ALEJANDRA BUITRAGO Ebola was still a very big threat in down pillow. How could I have ever thought coming fl ight to India after Burkina Faso’s B.A. JOURNALISM AND the region, and that my one semester to West Africa after living in Alaska my coup in September. As she says in her COMMUNICATION ’14 of French 101 was going to get me At the family compound, four women entire life would be a good decision? online story, “By no means will the BURKINA FASO nowhere. Along with about 40 other in a sea of colorful fabrics waited to I was hotter than I had ever been and work I do here solve the vicious cycles of Americans, I stepped onto the melting greet me—the wives of my host father sitting in a hut with no running water malnutrition, disease and famine…. tarmac of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. and now, my new moms. They each or electricity. I couldn’t communicate but I will make a tiny little dent, and In our 20-foot walk from plane to quickly took my hand, bowed their with my host family. They all spoke a that’s meaningful for me.” SEAWOLVES SERVING ABROAD WITH PEACE CORPS

HAYLEY CROW MONGOLIA 2014-2016 B.S. ’14

HERE ARE SOME OTHER UAA ALUMS TAKING WHAT THEY’VE LEARNED TO BE ERIC LESPIN USED FOR GOOD VIA THE PEACE CORPS. DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 1985-1987 M.P.H. ’14 CATHERINE WALKER MALI 2002-2004 M.A.T. ’06 DAVIN HOLEN MALI 1997-1999 LISA MCGUIRE B.A. ’95, M.A. ’02 HAITI 1998-2001 M.P.H. ’08 LÖKI GALE TOBIN AZERBAIJAN 2008-2011 B.A. ’06

20 • Fall 2015 Fall 2015 • 21 summer exercise in a box, there are so many different An Alaskan in Mongolia: The landscape is split between wedges of jagged Darin Swain, rides on the steppes. allows for training, cultures,” he said. “It’s a huge benefit for medical missions and, our military and the Alaska Guard—any mountains, massive spans of flat scrubland and crucially, cultural time you work with foreign soldiers it exchange. gives you an understanding about other blankets of rolling pine forests. Winters can be cultures and being good stewards.” Each year, one unit bitter, summers can be roasting and Anchorage native Darin Swain, A.A.S. schools for in-state tuition rates, making is assigned to attend Swain hopes to return to Mongolia, and there’s always the chance for snow on ’12—a sergeant first class in the Alaska UA a significant draw for students Khaan Quest but, Sainshur will eventually return to her the Fourth of July. Subsistence living is Army National Guard—dittoed that seeking an American education. thanks to Alaska’s home country … but it won’t be easy. a vital resource for a large population, sentiment. “I just had this feeling when I small population, Sainshur originally hails from but especially in the communities was there that I was home to a degree,” many soldiers can “Whenever I go hiking or berry Khovsgul—a regular tourist spot scattered off the road system. There’s a he said of his time in Mongolia with the return year after year. picking, it reminds me of the hikes and known as the Switzerland of state-run railroad, three major cities and Alaska Guard (more on that later, too). Swain is in regular trips I used to do with my grandparents Mongolia—but moved to Erdenet at a an ever-present mining industry. But contact with friends as a kid,” she recalled. “It’s really close instead of moose, they have camels. But first, a geography lesson … young age for better opportunities. “My SFC Swain is on the opposite end, he made in Mongolia in 2013, and to my heart living in Alaska and now, parents were all about education,” she having traveled from Alaska to hopes to return in the future. after six years, I love Alaska. With similarities spanning everything Mongolia is a large landlocked country said. After graduating from a private Mongolia for a month in 2013. Every from geography to demographics to sandwiched between China and Russia. high school, Sainshur considered state’s National Guard is partnered “Clearly, there are differences, but I see “Whenever I go back home, I miss industry and lifestyle, Mongolia sure A former Soviet republic, Mongolia studying in the USA, but the family with at least one foreign military, and a lot of similarities,” he said. “From a Alaska. I feel like I’m Alaskan.” sounds a lot like Alaska. It’s the least was the first Asian nation to adopt couldn’t swing the price tag. So she Alaska’s Guard is partnered with— military standpoint it densely populated country (Alaska’s communism (in 1921) and the first to enrolled at the University of Mongolia, surprise?—the Mongolian armed forces. was very similar to the the least dense state) and home to the abandon it (in 1991). With a strategic where a friend told her of the waiver terrains I’ve worked in. world’s coldest capital city. Is it any spot between two contentious Asian opportunities waiting in Alaska. Alaska’s Guard regularly works with I felt very comfortable surprise that Mongolia and Alaska are nations, the relationship between the Mongolian military in trainings, there.” academically and diplomatically linked Mongolia and the USA is an important “It was my first experience of exercises and even deployments; Guard as well? one. Within the U.S., though, that America,” she said of her move. members have served in both Iraq and He recognizes the relationship is strongest in Alaska. Luckily, she connected with two other Afghanistan as advisers to Mongolian relationship as a “We have so many similar things Mongolians—a nursing student and a military units. benefit for everyone between Mongolia and Alaska,” Fairbanks is an official sister city of logistics student—who helped her get involved. “The explained Sainshur Ganchuluun, B.S. Erdenet, Mongolia’s second-largest city. on her feet. She estimates 20 Mongolian Every summer, several hundred biggest thing I think Chemistry ’14, who graduated last year Population rank aside, both cities also students attend UAA today. Now Alaskans cross the Pacific for Khaan Americans need to thanks to available Mongolian tuition share a buzzing mining industry and an employed in an Anchorage chemistry Quest, a weeks-long multinational understand is there’s a waivers (more on that later). “It felt like annual temperature range that can only lab, she’s in a spot to lend the helping exercise named for Mongolia’s national whole world out there. A Mongolian in Alaska: Sainshur Ganchuluun visits Valdez. home to me here.” be described as extreme. As sister cities, hand. “I really loved going to UAA,” hero, Genghis Khan. The annual Everyone doesn’t fit any resident of Erdenet can attend UA she said.

surprising ties between uaa and mongolia

22 • Fall 2015 Fall 2015 • 23 ALUMNI NEWS BRIEFS DON’T MISS EVENTS AT UAA

ANSEP alumni join Fire up the grill royals sours as revolution brews, and for Marie, Fairbanks. Come howl for the home team as uaa UAA Dance Ensemble the political suddenly becomes veryto personal. it looks to break ado six-year UAF streak with engineering faculty Chapters took advantage of the summer in Performance Marie Antoinette holds a mirror up to our the Cup. Last year, the Seawolves made an Welcome back! Michele Yatchmeneff , B.S. sunshine to meet up across #SeawolfNation. Nov. 5–8 | UAATix.com contemporary society, which might just be impressive showing, tying the Nanooks 2-2 at ’05, M.S ’10, and Matt Calhoun, B.S. ’02, The Mat-Su Area alumni chapter held its For one weekend only, catch the all-student entertaining itself to death. the end of the series, but ultimately losing in graduated from the Alaska Native Science and fourth-annual alumni barbecue on campus in UAA Dance Ensemble as it performs in several a shootout. Engineering Program (ANSEP) and are the Palmer, the Colorado Area alumni chapter met works choreographed by internationally for drinks at a winery in downtown Denver fi rst two alumni of the program to return as recognized guest artists and UAA Dance GCI Great Alaska UAA Theatre: “Eurydice” tenure-track faculty. Both joined the faculty and the Alaska Native alumni chapter hosted program faculty. Shootout this fall. “I truly believe Alaska needs more its student and alumni barbecue at UAA. In Feb. 26–March 6 | UAATix.com homegrown scientists and engineers, and addition, the Alaska Native chapter packaged Nov. 24–28 | GoSeawolves.com Dying too young on her wedding day, I want to be part of making that happen at welcome boxes for nearly 80 Alaska Native UAA Planetarium: The oldest continuously running in-season Eurydice must journey to the underworld, ANSEP and at UAA,” said Calhoun. freshmen who moved into campus housing college basketball tournament in the nation, where she reunites with her father and this August. “Coloring the Universe” the Shootout returns to the Alaska Airlines struggles to remember her lost love. premiere Center this year. The UAA women’s team will Engineering reunion Nov. 20 | UAATix.com host George Mason, Pepperdine and Western Summer at the White Kentucky. Seawolves men will host Drexel, House launches Hall of Fame Alumni mentors return Everyone loves an astronomy picture, but have UAA Theatre: “Stalking to CBPP you ever wondered if they are real? Do they Loyola (Ill.), Middle Tennessee, UNC Asheville, the Bogeyman” What did you do with your summer vacation? Engineering alumni came back to campus to show objects as they really look? And how San Diego, San Jose State and Toledo. Both The College of Business and Public Policy April 1–24 | UAATix.com For two Anchorage teachers, their adventures tour the new Engineering & Industry Building they are made? UAA Astronomer Travis Rector fi elds “have the potential to be a who’s-who has matched its third class of students with The nationally acclaimed play Stalking the included a visit with President Obama after (full story on page 18). As part of their reunion, answers these questions and more. Don’t among the rising mid-major programs in local business leaders, including 10 alumni. Bogeyman, based on Anchorage writer David winning the Presidential Award for Excellence the College of Engineering alumni chapter miss this look at how pictures are made from college basketball,” said UAA Athletic Director The program pairs both graduate and Holthouse’s true story, makes its Alaska debut in Mathematics and Science Teaching. Tasha unveiled its Hall of Fame wall, celebrating Sam images the world’s most powerful telescopes Keith Hackett. undergraduate students with community in the Harper Studio Theatre this spring. Barnes, B.Ed. ’97, M.Ed. ’13—a seventh-grade Kito III, B.S. ’88, and Mike Fierro, B.S. ’89, M.S. collect. math teacher—and Ben Walker, M.A.T. ’06— ’01, as its fi rst two honorees. Sam, a current leaders for yearlong mentorship programs Adapted and directed by Markus Potter, the who teaches seventh-grade science—fl ew to state representative, previously worked for the throughout the academic year. This year’s Alaska Airlines play follows Holthouse as he plots to kill Washington, D.C., in July to receive the award, state as a facilities engineer. Mike has served crew of alumni mentors includes Anchorage UAA Theatre: Governor’s Cup: UAA his childhood rapist. NY Theater Now said attend professional development seminars as lead structural engineer for several campus Chamber of Commerce president Bruce of the play, “Brave storytelling of a delicate at the National Science Foundation, tour the buildings, including the UAA/APU Consortium Bustamante, B.B.A. ’99, Alaska Energy Authority “Marie Antoinette” vs. UAF subject–something you don’t see often in the White House and, yes, even shake hands with Library addition, ANSEP, the Health Sciences executive director Sara Fisher-Goad, M.B.A. Nov. 20–29 | UAATix.com Dec. 11–12 | GoSeawolves.com theatrical world. the President. Building and even the new EIB. ’09, and Rasmuson Foundation vice president In David Adjmi’s contemporary take on the It’s Seawolves vs. Nanooks in the opening Sammye Pokryfki, A.A. ’96, B.S.W. ’98, M.S.W. young queen of France, Marie is a confection round of the Governor’s Cup. The series kicks Alumni will enjoy a 10 percent discount on all ’99, B.A. ’06. created by a society that values extravagance off with two December games at the Sullivan UAA Theatre productions if they buy online at and artifi ce. But France’s love aff air with the Arena, followed by two March games in www.UAATix.com and use the code “UAAlumni.”

Mike Fierro and Sam Kito are honored as the EIB’s rst Hall of Famers,  anked by Chancellor Tom Case and College of Engineering Dean Fred Barlow.

24 • Fall 2015 SpringFall 2015 • 25 This page of alumni updates was compiled by Joey Besl of the UAA O ce of Alumni Relations. Please share your moments of pride and achievement via the LENS ON CAMPUS CLASS NOTES link at the bottom of this page, so we can note your success in an upcoming issue.

1984 honored to receive this 2008 program—a distance University. She also award,” she wrote. education initiative was named one of fi ve Jeff Roach, A.A.S. Sarah Thompson, B.H.S. hosted by UAA that Bisgrove Scholars by Agriculture, was selected Human Services, works allowed her to stay in Science Foundation to attend the U.S. Army 2006 with developmentally state. Sarah lives in Palmer Arizona, an award that 2016 Chief of Staff of It’s been a big summer and learning-challenged with her husband. will fund her post- the Army Senior Leader for Löki Gale Tobin, B.A. students in the Mat-Su doc research on “the Seminar, a development Psychology. Not only did Borough School District’s molecular mechanisms course for select she recently accept a new 46 schools. In 2011, 2009 by which experiences can senior Army colonels. job as the annual giving she graduated from Earlier this year, Candace shape neurobiology and Colonel Roach serves as manager at Anchorage Creighton University with Lewis, B.A. Psychology, behavior.” In Zurich this commander of the 38th Museum, she also married a Doctor of Occupational received her Ph.D. in year, the recent Fulbright Troop Command in the Walker Gusse, B.S. Aviation Therapy degree, thanks behavioral neuroscience recipient also will Alaska Army National Technology ’07. The to the Alaska Pathway from Arizona State complete neuroimaging Guard, and will be one couple met during their training on characterizing of only 14 Army National fi rst year at UAA. the eff ects of classic Guard leaders attending psychedelic compounds. the seminar in January. 2007 2015 1998 Walter Williams, M.B.A. Business Administration, Jennifer Lorenz, B.A. Sandi Keller, B.Ed. joined Doyon Limited Elementary Education, Elementary Education, in July. He serves as recently started a earned the Teacher of the the Alaska Native teaching position through Year award from Nome corporation’s corporate the Japan Exchange and Public Schools for the controller, responsible Teaching Program (JET), 2014-2015 school year. for accounting and an educational initiative An Iñupiaq Eskimo from fi nancial reporting. Walter sponsored by the Wales, Sandi is married, lives with his family in Japanese government. has four children and Anchorage, where he also Karl Wing, B.A. ’12 Political Science, brought a new hiking partner Currently, she lives in the three grandchildren, and serves on the board of with him to Mount Antero—Colorado’s 10th-largest peak. He southern city of Oita, has taught fi rst grade for Catholic Social Services wrote: “After 22 miles of ascending, descending, reaching the where she works as an most of her career. “If it and Campfi re Alaska, and summit, outrunning thunder, dodging lightning and enduring assistant English language a sprained ankle at mile 12 out of 22; he did a great job keeping wasn’t for my students, volunteers his time with teacher. I wouldn’t get this. I the morale up. The only catch was I had to carry him. Of course, Big Brothers Big Sisters of I did not mind.” Want to join the Colorado Area alumni chapter? am very humbled and Alaska. Contact Alumni Relations at 907-786-1942.

SUBMIT A CLASS NOTE UPDATE YOUR RECORDS Do you have some news to share? You can get connected with UAA Alumni! Your UAA family wants to know. Update your information at Submit your news online at this link: tinyurl.com/UAA-Update so we can let tinyurl.com/UAA-ClassNotes. you know about upcoming events. Ok Soon Chin is a student in a UAA oral  uency class, which took part in making videos for Anchorage’s The online magazine can be found here: tinyurl.com/AlumniSpirit. “Welcoming Week” event. (Photo by Ted Kincaid) Non-Profi t Organization US Postage PAID Permit No 107 Offi ce of Advancement Anchorage AK University of Alaska Anchorage 3211 Providence Drive, ADM 236 • Anchorage, AK 99508

ALUMNI DISCOUNTS ALL SEASON LONG! Get your Alumni WOLFcard and gear up for another record-setting season with exclusive season ticket discounts on five Seawolf sports (and bring the kids along with a SeaPups pass). Call the Alumni Center for more information at 907-786-1942.