Spring 2015 • ISSUE 03

Enriching culture | Alumni ParTee: 9 in the Spine | Alumni spotlights Spring 2015 • ISSUE 03 Published by UAA University Advancement

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ALUMNI SPOTLIGHTS FEATURES DEPARTMENTS 8 TODD BOSS 6 4 From the Editor M.F.A. grad takes poetry to the AIRLINES CENTER web with ‘motionpoems’ Changing Seawolf athletics 5 Welcome 16 Alumni News Briefs 22 JASON HAHN 10 BEATRICE MCDONALD Helping South Sudan villagers HALL RENOVATION 17 Don’t Miss Airy atrium, bright colors, cozy 26 Class Notes 24 LEILA KIMBRELL seating entice students to linger Working with 27 Lens on Campus Sen. Lisa Murkowski 12 ENRICHING CULTURE Nanwalek leaders, UAA professor 25 ROSEY ROBARDS collaborate to preserve heritage Amplifying the creativity of Alaska’s youth 20 9 IN THE SPINE Alumni putt-putt across campus

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

ON THE COVER The artwork featured on the cover is a detail of a photo titled, “Emerging Spring” by Carl Battreall. He and Fans are riveted on the action at a recent gymnastics meet at the other Alaska photographers shot the Percent for Art images lining the hallways of the newly renovated Center. The Seawolves’ Division I gymnastics team Beatrice McDonald Hall. Each image reflects an academic department housed in BMH, such as geography, hosted the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships in anthropology, aquatic ecology and botany. Read more on page 10. their new digs on March 21.

Spring 2015 • 3 Editor Kathleen McCoy

Writers Jamie Gonzales Kathleen McCoy Tracy Kalytiak Joey Besl from an alumna Michelle Saport Spring is here! And with it, more daylight, blooming Graphic Designer flowers and the promise of a beautiful and adventurous Brett Rawalt Alaska summer. It is a time for renewal and growth, which for many UAA seniors is signified by their final transition Staff Photographer from college student to college graduate. The UAA Philip Hall College of Engineering Alumni Chapter, along with our fellow UAA alumni chapters, commit to supporting our UAA Alumni Association newest graduates. Alumni chapters build opportunities Board of Directors for students and alumni to communicate, collaborate and Carol Comeau, M.Ed. ’86 from the chancellor stay connected—to each other and to UAA, whether it’s and LL.D ‘07 The newly refurbished Beatrice McDonald Hall. within our neighborhoods or on campus. We applaud the Mark Filipenko, B.B.A. ‘00 I always welcome this chance to connect with UAA efforts of those students taking their first step into a larger Leverette Hoover, B.S. ‘97 alumni in this magazine. Alaska depends on critically world. Andrea Story, B.B.A. ‘95 thinking citizens to help us navigate our unsettled future. Charles Gunther, B.A. ‘91 from the editor With more than 32,300 of you working and living in Drew Cason, B.A. ’13 Happy spring, and welcome to our third edition of Alumni Spirit magazine. It has been a newsy Congratulations to the UAA graduating Class of 2015! Alaska, UAA alumni have the power to effect change and B.S. ‘13 winter and spring, and we have much to share. during turbulent times. Your state needs you. Your Beth Mader, B.A. ‘94 Sincerely, university needs you. Lea Bouton, M.A.T. ‘10 First, I want to personally thank award-winning Alaska photographer Carl Battreall for the Kersten Johnson-Struempler, beautiful image gracing our cover. It’s a detail from “Emerging Spring,” his photo of unfolding M.Ed. ‘03 Here at UAA, we’re preparing for a challenging road elderberry leaves captured on a hike toward Near Point in Chugach State Park. This lovely crimson Amy Hart, B.S.N. ‘08 ahead. You’ll read about our evaluation of all academic bud enlivens a wall in Beatrice McDonald Hall, newly reopened after a massive, multi-year, energy- Rachel Morse, M.B.A. ’08, and support programs to ensure they still fit the mission efficient, student-friendly “do-over.” Color and light, smart classrooms and great study-group Virginia J. Groeschel AVC Alumni Relations to best serve our students and state. As a reduced seating have transformed one of the oldest buildings on campus. President, College of Engineering Alumni Chapter operating budget moves through legislative channels To reach University of Alaska Anchorage to Gov. Bill Walker’s desk, UAA will be ready. We are UAA Alumni Relations: I mentioned news. Alaska’s ongoing budget challenges are having an effect at UAA. Also, even preserving quality higher education for Alaskans by Main office line before oil prices plummeted, UAA faculty and staff evaluated programs and services to find which strategically directing energy and resources. (907) 786-1942 no longer fit the mission. Learn more in this issue about both important developments. uaa_alumnirelations Change can be difficult, but I deeply believe limits can @uaa.alaska.edu In other stories, you’ll meet more of UAA’s amazing alumni, catch some golfing in the Spine, and make us even more creative. Together, let us envision learn how Newhalen residents and a UAA professor are collaborating to save local culture. Alaska’s great future. Thank you for reading!

Tom Case, Chancellor Kathleen McCoy, Editor

Spring 2015 • 5 An arching gateway connects campus across Providence Drive. WITHOUT QUESTION, EVERY UAA landings they wouldn’t walk away from in our old gym. It SPORTS TEAM HAS BENEFITED FROM gives the girls more confidence in what they’re doing.” A the improved strength training, conditioning and sports look at floor routines shows the team’s transformation. Last medicine facilities in the Alaska Airlines Center. One team in year, one person did a double back on floor; now nine have. particular exemplifies the AAC’s impact on UAA Athletics— our Division I gymnastics team. The new facility has attracted about 25 percent more volleyball fans and doubled the crowds for basketball. “We’re Ask a team upperclassman and she’ll tell you that as recently way up in season ticket sales,” said Keith Hackett, UAA’s as last year, she would hear, “UAA has a gymnastics team?” director of athletics. “We’re way up in single-game sales.” That stings when you’re putting in sweaty hours daily to Ticket sales revenue for volleyball is up 115 percent over last achieve and maintain elite status. But it’s understandable, year. Shootout revenue is up 66 percent. considering team members practiced off-site and competed on the road more than they did at home. “People want to come here,” he said. “We have a destination restaurant upstairs. Even if there’s not a game, come and eat That all changed last year when the team moved into its at the restaurant, walk around the track. It feels so much custom-built practice facility. No one is more energized by more friendly.” Hot tip: The Varsity Sports Grill’s window the improvements than Coach Paul Stoklos, who has been seats are a great place to catch a game while you enjoy with the team for 31 years. With more time and space for dinner, but call ahead or arrive early—those “ring-side” seats practice, his athletes have all upgraded their routines. tend to fill up fast.

“We can throw more difficulty than ever before, in part Don’t miss some of the great spring and summer events they because we can train more in that gym,” he said. “The have planned. Visit www.alaskaairlinescenter.com for the full in-ground foam pits allow the girls to work skills and take slate of athletics and community events. A NEW GATEWAY TO UAA

A GRACEFUL ARCHWAY LINKS Style aside, the span is also an impressive engineering feat. AAC CHANGES THE GAME CAMPUS BUILDINGS ON BOTH SIDES Unlike other stretches of the Spine, this newest bridge is OF PROVIDENCE DRIVE. completely self-supported and structurally independent of its The new campus landmark links the Engineering & Industry neighboring buildings. Much like a backyard swing set, the FOR SEAWOLF SPORTS Building (opening in 2015) to the Health Sciences Building leaning arches provide stability against predictable wind and (completed in 2011), connecting two of UAA’s most recent seismic activity. buildings. The engineers also installed nifty neoprene insulators UAA tapped the architects of Livingston Slone and the wherever the glass-and-steel bridge connected to the arches engineers of Reid Middleton to design the bridge, requesting (think of them like giant gloves for metal beams). Thanks to a visual gateway that celebrated the new generation of the neoprene, the cold outside doesn’t readily transfer to the campus. The team opted for a double-arched walkway— heated glass gallery. sleek, unique and completely rooted on campus. The construction cost an estimated $4.4 million, which The Municipality closed Providence Drive over winter came partially from the under-budget Health Sciences break so UAA could send in the cranes. For several days, construction. The walkway offers 23 feet of clearance and is crews welded the massive steel beams into place under the entirely rooted on UAA property. Both the 230-foot bridge glimmering holiday lights draped on trees in the median. and the new engineering building will open for the fall 2015 semester. The span will offer safe transit to the health Visually, the span adopts design elements of both its campus, a bright, sunny study space for students and, most neighbors. The steel structure matches the silvery shimmer visibly, a beautifully engineered landmark for UAA. of the health building, while the insulated metal panels carry Watch a time-lapse video of the bridge’s installation at UAA over onto the new engineering building. Alumni Spirit online, tinyurl.com/AlumniSpirit. Thousands of fans came to cheer the Seawolf women vs. 6 • Spring 2015 Point Loma in the NCAA West Regional Championships. Spring 2015 • 7 PHOTO BY DANIEL CORRIGAN DANIEL BY PHOTO One Can Miss Mountains

long-hosted at UAA, for which graduate But back to the poetry. Motionpoems student Boss once labored as an editor. works with major publishers and star- and pine. One But more on that in a minute. powered musicians and filmmakers in a dedicated effort to broaden poetry’s can dismiss As Boss explains in the Q and A, audience. Each year, Motionpoems a whisper’s Sexton’s and Spatz’s literary lessons creates about a dozen works; seasons took deep root in him. While he 1-5 are a delicious excursion archived revelations accepted many different jobs after for viewers’ pleasure at www. his M.F.A.—and mindfully added motionpoems.com. Indulge! and go on as many new skills to his job quiver—the young poet eventually catapulted to In our online Alumni Spirit magazine before as if the national scene, anchored by W. W. at tinyurl.com/AlumniSpirit, we everything were Norton’s publication of his two award- share the story of one particular winning books of poetry, Yellowrocket Motionpoems collaboration, “The perfectly fine. (2008) and Pitch (2012). He landed in Ring-Toss Lady Breaks a Five,” written One does. One The New Yorker with a poem inspired by Wisconsin poet Mark Kraushaar by Alaska’s topography, “One Can and made artfully cinematic by loses wonder Miss Mountains,” on page 9. Now he’s Stefan Lessard, acclaimed bassist for among stores crafting a third book for Norton, due the Dave Matthews Band, and his out in a few years. filmmaker friend, Fred Schroeder. This motionpoem is a direct connect of things. One can even miss UAA Literary Spotlight But the printed page is only a piece between Boss and his old friends at of Boss, now 46. In 2008, he co- AQR. As he writes: the basso boom of the ocean’s m.f.a. grad salutes aqr with “a street-smart car nival love story” rumpus room How to capture poet Todd Boss and his corporations located in the Twin Cities. founded (with animator Angella “When AQR turned 30, I felt it was and its rhythm. creative DNA in one short story on this Kassube) a nonprofit company called my chance to extend an invitation to printed page? But back in the early 1990s, after Motionpoems, delightfully creating editor Ron Spatz. He sent me a dozen A man can leave graduating from St. Olaf College in tiny films that only begin with the print poems, and I chose several to share with this earth Impossible. But for your sake, let Minnesota, Boss came north to UAA version of contemporary poems. filmmakers. I remember being taken me try. (And to deepen this short for an M.F.A. This was a time before with one in particular, a street-smart and take nothing conversation, please visit our longer Q that creative writing program had He also envisions and executes public carnival love story.” Boss connected film —not even and A with the artist, as well as links to transformed into low-residency and art. In 2012, to commemorate the and audio artists, and a motionpoem poems and other interviews with Boss, while two Alaska literary heavyweights, fifth anniversary of the I-35W Bridge was born. all found online at UAA Alumni Spirit poet Tom Sexton and fiction expert collapse, he anchored 35 oversize longing—along magazine at tinyurl.com/AlumniSpirit.) Ronald Spatz, were both teaching here. life rings in the Mississippi River in For the complete experience of this with him. downtown Minneapolis and published a tender, sad and charming work, we Today, this Wisconsin-born former farm That connection proved significant in 35-part poem in the Star Tribune. Last invite you to go online at UAA Alumni boy works out of Minneapolis, a place 2012 when Boss found a fresh way to October, he created and installed a film Spirit at tinyurl.com/AlumniSpirit. Todd Boss Inspired by his time in Alaska. he describes as a mecca for the arts, celebrate the 30th anniversary of Alaska projection on the façade of St. Paul’s Read the poem, and then step beyond, Published in The New Yorker nurtured by strong legacy support from Quarterly Review, the literary magazine block-long historic Union Station. to the motionpoem.

8 • Spring 2015 Spring 2015 • 9 Prior to its recent renovation, the are built into the wall, flooding the topics such as geography, anthropology, Beatrice McDonald Hall was a dimly foyers with light. Even the benches— aquatic ecology and botany. lit outpost on the original campus which dramatically increased student quad. Now, following a long renovation gathering space—are internally lit. Beatrice McDonald’s portrait is back process that completely gutted the home now, reinstalled opposite the original building, it’s no longer an Most eye-catching are the photographs grand entrance. The image of the 1950s academic cave. lining the walls. Each image was shot in business professor welcomes students. state by an Alaska photographer as part In fact, it’s positively glowing—the of the project’s Percent for Art budget “I think this is a good example of what walls, the art and even the furniture are and become a part of UAA’s public art we can do with the rest of the 1970s illuminated. Coupled with a signature collection. buildings on campus,” Baum said of the sun-soaked three-story atrium, the new renovation process. “You don’t have to McDonald Hall is a testament to the The photos are mounted on resin tear them all down, you can basically powers of renovation. panels and internally lit by LED light, make them into a new building and and each image reflects an academic have it be a really nice building that Beatrice McDonald Hall—one of area taught in BMH. These include people want to be in.” UAA’s original campus buildings—went under the knife in 2013 and reopened this spring with new windows, new electric systems, new boilers, almost new everything.

“It was basically a new building,” noted Patricia Baum, UAA’s project manager on the renovation. AIRY ATRIUM, BRIGHT COLORS, COZY As a professional interior and lighting SEATING ENTICE STUDENTS TO LINGER designer, Baum was the perfect person to take on the low-slung building’s renovation. Now, everything is illuminated. Office doors have half Illuminated prints from Alaska photographers windows, so sunlight can carry into add an extra splash of light to the building. interior hallways. Tall LED columns More photos at tinyurl.com/AlumniSpirit.

10 • Spring 2015 Spring 2015 • 11 Baby cradle, Lower Kenai Peninsula “We can’t tell stories all the way in English because no one will know the Sugpiaq people had a history because there was not Berlin Ethnologisches Museum understand our broken language, so we’ll just speak Sugt’stun.” a lot of things like masks and dances or stories like the other Alaska Natives. There seemed to be a chunk of history we In the years after 1867, when the Russians sold Alaska to were missing.” the U.S., Americans traveled here to get rich, spread their religion or simply start life afresh. Many new arrivals inflicted When she was younger, Moonin said, people found artifacts discrimination and dislocations on Alaska Natives, forcing where there had been dwellings. “I remember my mom and Native children to attend boarding schools, barring them dad would find some and dad saved them,” she said. “Some from businesses and neighborhoods and forcing them to sit other people sold them for a very low amount to tourists that in “Native” sections of theaters or restaurants. came in the summer—mostly rock, wood or bone artifacts.”

Indignities even touched Nanwalek—“place by the lagoon” Later, Moonin heard a Paris museum possessed Sugpiaq in the Sugt’stun language—a community of about 300 masks. “I was blown away and happy at the same time,” she Sugpiaq people historically located on the southwest Lower said. “That is [a] piece missing from my people and yet I Kenai Peninsula. was sad because I could not believe people would come and just take things for show in faraway places. Then I heard “[Bureau of Indian Affairs] teachers came in 1958 when there were artifacts in Germany and Russia and I guess I Enriching Culture they finished the new school,” said Kathy Brewster, 71, a just started piecing some of my own personal history and Nanwalek elder and community health aide. “A lot of kids thinking those are a part of my ancestry.” NANWALEK LEADERS, UAA PROFESSOR were whipped, forced to stand flagpole in the wintertime, COLLABORATE TO PRESERVE HERITAGE had their mouth washed out with soap if they speak their When Moonin worked as tribal administrator for the language. They used corporal punishment, spanked hands Nanwalek Council, museums would write and ask if a certain with rulers. They made kids ashamed of their language.” item belonged to her tribe and she didn’t know.

Life was different at home, however. “Adults didn’t quit using their language,” Brewster said. “It never changed. They spoke Sugt’stun to their kids at home.”

“My mother was ashamed to have dark skin, but to me it was beautiful and I felt some anger that she had been told somewhere by someone that it wasn’t. That has made me stronger from those kinds of acts that were made to be ashamed of being Native. I am not ashamed. This is what was given to us by God.”

“In one grave there was a woman and a child. Hard as I tried to preserve them I did not 1976-019-0001) #PM (ACCESSION MUSEUM PRATT BADGE: RUSSIAN succeed, and I came away with only the woman’s skull and the child’s cradle…We were not The woman who wrote those words, Alma Moonin, was born in Nanwalek, the 12th the first visitors here, for the collector from the Smithsonian Institution had preceded us.” child of 13.

The person who wrote that passage, Johan Adrian Jacobsen, One hundred thirty-two years later, distant relatives of “I am Sugpiaq and Russian,” she said, had been, from 1881-1883, exploring Alaska and America’s that woman and baby can “see” that cradle, even though it explaining that her mother referred to Northwest Coast. He discarded the “almost completely remains 4,400 miles distant from the long-ago child it held. herself as an Aleut. decayed” remains of that mother and her infant at their A collaboration between the community of Nanwalek and a lonely Kenai Peninsula grave, took the woman’s skull and Hungary-born UAA anthropology professor made it possible “It was confusing later on, because when brought her baby’s moss-lined sealskin-and-wood cradle to to include and embrace that precious artifact within the I learned about the Aleuts in the Aleutian Germany’s Royal Berlin Ethnological Museum. cultural legacy of the Sugpiaq people. chain, we spoke nothing like them. I did not Daryl Kreun photographs a Russian badge found in Nanwalek.

12 • Spring 2015 Spring 2015 • 13 Native studies at UAA who, as a Russian Orthodox there, that’s where [help them] have the right understanding Enriching Culture 16-year-old, saw a televised movie about most of them came from. There’s not a of their language, history and heritage. the Russian Orthodox faith in Alaska Russian Orthodox church in Valdez. I “Then I realized how…we need to and became an anthropology scholar. learned from them, they kept telling me Demas’ sister, Moonin, envisions a preserve what little we had in our if you really want to know about Russian future in which she and other Sugpiaq community and start getting back what Growing up under Hungary’s Orthodoxy in Alaska, you need to go to a people, educated about their history and belonged to us so we can piece our Communist regime had forced Csoba village and live in a village.” heritage, will fully know their identity. lost history and become aware of our DeHass and her family to hide their Sugpiaq ways,” Moonin said. Eastern Christian faith. Csoba DeHass heeded that advice The project, according to the from people she met while studying collaboration’s website, focuses “People of other religions would come… “You [could] be punished for it,” she English at the community college in on “places that count”—currently but the parents and older people, once said. “I was looking at this movie Valdez and completing research for uninhabited village sites, subsistence they found out, we were not allowed to in Alaska where people are Russian her second Hungarian master’s degree, areas and seasonal camps. be around them. Sometimes when they Orthodox so openly and it’s celebrated in anthropology. A few years later, would come into our village by plane or and their community is completely as a Ph.D. student at UAF, she asked It fills gaps in existing scientific and boat and the word got around, the priest embracing this…I think that was permission from the Nanwalek Indian historical studies by collecting oral or leaders of the community would ask captivating for me.” Reorganization Act Council to live in histories and highlighting its work with them to leave because we already had the the village as she conducted research for Homer’s Pratt Museum to organize, Orthodox faith established here. They DeHass wanted to study religion from her dissertation. identify and photograph artifacts: bone were not to come and even think of trying an anthropological standpoint. Medeia Csoba DeHass, standing, works with elders and youth from Nanwalek and Port Graham, to review needles, gut buttons, a carved stone photos and artifacts as part of a heritage preservation workshop. to tell us about their religion.” “My husband and I met with the lamp that eroded out of a seaside bluff. “How do people deal with religion; Nanwalek Council and presented, The most critical aspect of Moonin’s what is it for, really,” she said. “How saying this is what we’d like to do, study “I was telling stories, she was recording— elders, cultural specialists and museum The project also brings home, virtually, life in Nanwalek, she said, has been her does it play into our life, because you Russian Orthodoxy. They talked about stories that were passed on from my mom, personnel to discuss and document relics from the Sugpiaq past held [Russian] Orthodox faith. “It played a can’t just separate out religion. You it and agreed we could come in.” what I’d see around here growing up.” the Lower Kenai Peninsula’s Sugpiaq in London, Paris and Berlin—the big role, even more than the Sugpiaq can’t say it doesn’t affect your life, heritage. place where that cradle will remain, ways,” she said. because it does.” They received permission to stay The community of Nanwalek nourished thousands of miles from the bones of for a year. “We ended up staying 15 its culture by protecting its religion, Museums Alaska, Alaska Humanities that Sugpiaq infant it once held. The Orthodox faith became a link “I worked with people there who were months,” Csoba DeHass said, “then we speaking its language, telling its stories, Forum, National Science Foundation’s between the people of Nanwalek and mostly from the [Alaska] Native kept going back to visit. …Last summer, gathering photos from the past. Arctic Social Sciences Program and a The logical argument is that the Medeia Csoba DeHass, an assistant communities: Nanwalek, Port Graham, we were there for a month.” UAA faculty development grant funded valuable fragment would have been professor of anthropology and Alaska Chenega, Tatitlek. People who are Their challenge: Helping people in the heritage preservation project. forever unseen if Jacobsen hadn’t Nanwalek and others tap that rich vein opened that grave. of culture and knowledge. “[Csoba Nanwalek elder and UAA alumna (B.A. DeHass] made everything easy,” Education, ’96) Pauline Demas, 64, The extended Sugpiaq family of that Moonin said. “People felt comfortable participated by telling stories of the child, however, still laments the loss of with her because she understands our past. “[Csoba DeHass] recorded some one of its own. “The ties to our history culture and the way we live and we of the stories I had and she would come that have been taken from us, I wish we all belong to the Russian Orthodox to my classroom where I was teaching could get them back,” Moonin said. Church. Probably that was the strongest Sugt’stun at the time,” Demas said. connection.” “The little kids, their first language is Despite regrets, Moonin and others in English. I tell them [Sugt’stun] is us Nanwalek peer forward, toward their Moonin said people in Nanwalek and it’s going to disappear. It’s part of future. worked with Csoba DeHass in the you. This is who you are. I would like collaborative effort to record and to see everybody speak it more.” “I hope this lets the world know who preserve their culture. What’s emerged the Sugpiaq people are,” she said, “and is the Sugpiaq Ethnohistory project, “I hope this work for children and what a rich heritage we have to share which connects community members, community members of Nanwalek will that has been almost lost forever.” PRATT MUSEUM (ACCESSION #PM 1999-001-0003) AND NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION (ACCESSION #22-FFA-461) (ACCESSION ADMINISTRATION RECORDS AND ARCHIVES NATIONAL AND 1999-001-0003) #PM (ACCESSION MUSEUM PRATT

14 • Spring 2015 Spring 2015 • 15 alumni news briefs come experience the arts at uaa uaaMat-Su alumni open Alumni discount Alumni night at Shakespeare, hip-hop, Student Union Gallery, second floor,arts “William Shakespeare’s Student Union, displays works by UAA new theater announced for Mayor’s the Alaska Airlines opera, ballet, jazz, student artists. A typical season includes Land of the Dead: A The Glenn Massay Theater opened at Mat-Su Marathon Governor’s Cup Monty Python, classical eight exhibits that may include ceramics, True and Accurate College in February. The top-notch 520-seat, If you’ve been searching for that extra bit of Alumni filled the arena for the fourth and final guitar… watercolor, pen-and-ink and photography. Account of the 1599 34,000-square-foot venue is the first new motivation, look no further—your discount match of the Governor’s Cup against UAF. With dozens of performances throughout Zombie Plague” building on Mat-Su’s campus since 2003. code has arrived. All UAA alumni are invited March 7 kicked off with a UAA vs. UAF alumni Arc Gallery, next to the Alumni Center the school year, the arts season at UAA offers April 24 and 25, 8 p.m. / April 26, 3 p.m. Members of the Mat-Su Area alumni chapter to participate in the Mayor’s Marathon events hockey game at , followed by an in the UAA/APU Consortium Library, something for everyone. For the 2015–16 UAA Mainstage Theatre reconvened on campus to serve as ushers at on June 20. Whether you’re running the relay, alumni kickoff rally joined by head coach Matt showcases works by both renowned and performing arts season, look forward to Don’t miss this comedy in five bites. The the theater’s dedication and grand opening the 4-miler, the half or full marathon, use the Thomas and Chancellor Tom Case. Alumni emerging Alaska artists. four theatrical productions, two dance premiere of “Henry V” is just concluding at the on Saturday, Feb. 7. code “UAA Alumni” when registering and received discounted tickets to the final game performances and three big music events: Globe Theatre when a “deranged individual” receive a special alumni discount. Bonus: If you and—along with family and friends—filled Visit their websites for season previews or Symphony of Sounds, Winter Music Fest and bites a company member just outside the run the full marathon, you’ll be pounding the the 100-seat alumni section with green and check out the UAA Master Calendar for what’s Jazz Week. For program and ticket links, view theatre. Before the evening is over, Sir Francis pavement through UAA’s campus at mile 21. gold. View photos of the event at tinyurl.com/ on display any given day. this story online at Alumni Spirit, tinyurl.com/ Bacon, Will Kemp and even Queen Elizabeth Register now at goseawolves.com. AlumniSpirit. AlumniSpirit. show up at the Globe, as well as throngs of Spring Commencement deranged individuals, all pounding on the Library’s Take Wing All tickets for theater, dance and music shows Sunday, May 3, 1–3:30 p.m. door… Has the whole town gone mad?! are available at UAATix.com. Tickets for the Alaska Airlines Center pendulum turns 10 In November, as part of its Take Wing program, 2015–16 season go on sale in August. Free Join us as we celebrate UAA’s newest alumni. The UAA/APU Consortium Library’s silently the Alaska Humanities Forum arranged a UAA events (lectures, workshops, student recitals) Guitar Ensemble visit for 23 students from six communities swaying centerpiece turned 10 years old this are typically posted on the UAA master Sunday, April 26, 4 p.m. across the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. The high fall. Anchoring the library’s spiral staircase, calendar at least two weeks in advance. Planetarium: Fine Arts Building, Recital Hall school students toured UAA and the aviation the Foucault pendulum—presented as a “Exploding Universe” Armin Abdihodzic directs and accompanies gift to the university from the UAA Alumni campus, as well as . UAA is also home to three free art galleries: Friday, April 24, 8 p.m. the UAA Guitar Ensemble in their final Association in 2004—is ringed by the names On Nov. 12, a crew of UAA alumni with Alaska ConocoPhillips Integrated Science performance of the season. This talented of the 360 alumni and friends who made the Native and rural Alaska roots met the students Kimura Gallery, second floor, Fine Building, Room 220 ensemble explores the versatility and range of project happen. All 360 donors were invited to answer questions and discuss their own Arts Building, brings cutting-edge Experience the universe’s ultimate blowups the acoustic guitar, proving that no matter the to an event Nov. 12 at the new Alumni Center experiences at UAA. contemporary art from around the world David Johnson, a Mat-Su College alumnus, holds the in this newest planetarium show! Explosive genre its sweet tones take center stage. Learn Blue Marble that signifies the Glenn Massay Theater (adjacent to the library) to celebrate the past to campus. The gallery aims to visually and events have shaped and transformed the more about this show and others still to come design has environmentally significant features. As a 10 years of alumni momentum. intellectually engage the community-at- universe, as well as the Earth itself, into what it this season at bit.ly/1BRPMHG. student, Johnson founded the Mat-Su Carbon Crew, Engineers take large with recent developments and ideas is today. an environmental activist organization. (Photo by in the visual arts. Heather Dunn, courtesy of Mat-Su College) over the library Chicago chapter The College of Engineering alumni chapter launched hosted a student-focused meet and greet in We’re excited to announce the latest alumni the UAA/APU Consortium Library on Jan. 30. chapter, helmed in the mighty Midwestern The chapter invited first-year students to an metropolis of Chicago. Know any Windy City informal event featuring engineering alumni Seawolves who want to celebrate Alaska on and representatives from various professional the Great Lakes? Call the Alumni Center for organizations and a variety of student clubs. more information at (907) 786-1942.

16 • Spring 2015 Spring 2015 • 17 prioritization the budget what we learned what we face

Program prioritization may be a mouthful, clothes in your closet. What haven’t you No man is an island, no public university stands Many ask how UAA can build new buildings in but it adds up to a serious effort by staff and worn in two years? What box sat on a shelf alone. Especially if that institution receives upward tough financial times. Two kinds of funding come faculty at UAA to review every academic unopened for three years? of 40 percent of its support from the state. When to the university from the legislature: operating and program and administrative service offered on that state’s economy declines, so will the university. capital. Capital funds are one-time allocations to the Anchorage campus. UAA learned it had A book on how to do this for higher construct or improve campus buildings. Operating areas it could trim. (Community campuses education, written in 1999 and re-released in Welcome to Alaska in 2015. Oil prices have funds pay for utilities, personnel and programming took a wait-and-see approach, giving the 2010 by former college president Robert C. plummeted from $109 per barrel last summer in those buildings. Think of it this way: If you buy largest campus a chance to work through the Dickeson, inspired UAA’s determined effort. to $49 per barrel in January. Shortly afterward, a house, the sale price doesn’t include your utility $109 Gov. Bill Walker opened state budget discussions, bills while you live there, or the new roof you may complex process.) As Dickeson explained, colleges are more July 2014 likely to create programs to attract students recommending an $18 million trim in support to eventually need. This brief overview is aimed at UAA alumni than go through the painful exercise of UA’s general fund. who may have heard something about eliminating nonperformers. But as costs rise, “Increased pressure on our [operating] budget prioritization but don’t know the scope of the main source of new funding comes from As our magazine went to press in late March, the creates an environment in which very difficult the effort. reallocating existing resources. You might legislative budget cycle was in full swing. House decisions will be made,” Chancellor Tom Case think of it as posting your unused bike on Finance had pared $16 million more, for a total of told the campus community in early February. Spring 2013 began with two task forces, Craigslist so you can buy the skis you want. $34 million from UA’s FY16 budget. For UAA, Given looming state shortfalls, UAA’s future $49 that could translate into $13.5 million in unfunded resides with professional programs and workforce one comprised of faculty that reviewed 313 In university terms, it can mean closing January 2015 academic programs, and one comprised programs that don’t attract students so you support for next year. development, supported by a strong liberal arts core, mostly of staff, that reviewed 178 support can better support those that are growing. he said. UAA’s leadership team says it will use the services. In late March, the Senate’s University Budget prioritization findings to inform needed cuts. UAA’s two task forces completed their work Subcommittee recommended adding back $5 They created evaluation forms and rating in February 2015. Most further evaluations million, adjusting UAA’s unfunded support to $11.4 criteria. Does this program or service fit related to transforming or eliminating million. Conference committees in April will struggle Follow developments at the UAA Budget FY16 blog UAA’s mission? Does it need to change, programs or services will be completed by toward a single funding bill. Their final number will (uaa-budget-qna.blogspot.com). go to the governor in May. By June, UAA will knows or go away? June. The university expects to realize from Find a budget toolbox, including an upcoming UAA budget forum $1 million to $2 million in savings. Read (per barrel) what its FY16 budget is. The new fiscal year begins (May 15, 1-2:30 p.m. LIB 307) and review a Budget 101 PowerPoint You might think of this as a prudent routine, more at the program prioritization page on July 1. To prepare, statewide university officials have prepared by UAA Budget Director Kelly Thorngren on the UAA website like cleaning out the garage or going though the UAA website (tinyurl.com/UAApriority). updated layoff and furlough regulations. (tinyurl.com/uaabudget).

18 • Spring 2015 Spring 2015 • 19 Twenty-seven alumni teams, two courses and one excellent evening at UAA. On Feb. 26, alumni returned to campus to putt their way through the Spine at the second-annual Alumni ParTee. This year’s course doubled in size, with 18 student clubs crafting one-of-a-kind mini-golf masterpieces for the annual scholarship fundraiser.

Congratulations to this year’s winning teams, the Mat-Su Alumni Chapter The and Wounded Warrior Project. shaking, quaking 4th Avenue Theater— created by the UAA Marketing & —earned People’s Management Club Choice for best design. Enjoy more photos at Alumni Spirit online,. tinyurl.com/AlumniSpirit

You have a year to work up your putt-putt prowess before we do it all again next spring. Hope to see you there!

20 • Spring 2015 Spring 2015 • 21 UAA Alumni Profile Hahn traveled to Old Fangak in 2010 and served as ASMP’s program director until very recently. “I am focusing on “A resurgence is happening” graduate school and will remain involved with ASMP as a board member and advisor,” he said. Hahn says he’d thought about attending graduate school, but work was always in the Jason Hahn was tending bar at the Petroleum Club of Anchorage when he served a drink to a geologist who had just returned way. A few years ago, he was talking about ASMP at a local Engineers Without Borders from drilling water wells for South Sudan villagers. “[We were] going through the normal banter when he told me about the meeting when a UAA M.P.H. professor talked to him after the presentation. Alaska Sudan Medical Project,” said Hahn, who graduated from UAA in 1998 with a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences and is now working on a Master of Public Health degree. “She mentioned that this program is online and would fit well with what I am doing in South Sudan,” he said. “I realized public health was exactly what I was doing, and the Hahn went from pouring Macallan single malt whisky for Petroleum Club members to helping the people of Old Fangak, a program would give me more tools and experience for the job.” cluster of huts 8,000 miles away from Alaska. Hahn says ASMP makes a huge impact. “[South Sudan] is one of the most difficult “It is hot—that is honestly the first thing you notice,” Hahn said. “The village is on the Nile River, so it is actually peaceful places to work in the world, logistically,” he said. “Where we work, there are almost and quite beautiful, in a stark way. You notice the smells, also—strong ones that pass through from the fish market, from no resources: no tools, supplies or materials. We have to ship everything in and there is Jason Hahn takes a break from helping drill open waste, from cattle, from bare humanity. First impressions are that it is very basic, very primitive. But the people are little room for error to get our goals accomplished.” water wells. (Photo courtesy of ASMP) warm, open, friendly.” p u b l i c h e a l t h s t u d e n t h e l p s s o u t h s u d a n v i l l a g e r s ASMP finished building a new solar-powered primary care clinic in Old Fangak last year. And, volunteers have drilled water wells. “The people need basic things like clean water and more food security,” Hahn said.

Before the water wells, Hahn said, villagers drank from the Nile River or mud puddles, putting them at high risk of diseases like bilharzia and other microbes and parasites that cause diarrhea—the top cause of death in children under 5 in South Sudan.

ASMP volunteers bring water, construct latrines and enhance hygiene with hand-washing stations. They’re also focusing on expanding agriculture.

“[Agriculture] has been lost in the perpetual wars of the Sudans over the last 40 years,” he said. “A resurgence is happening. As our local agriculture program has grown, we are seeing more tomatoes, onions, okra, eggplant, bananas. They also fish to supplement their diet, but there is not enough food to go around. This area of the Nile River is immensely fertile. They just need seeds, basic tools and training to get it going. It is taking off like wildfire and is self- perpetuating.”

Jason Hahn, former program director for the Alaska Sudan Medical Project, encourages 22 • Spring 2015 his boat launch crew in Old Fangak, South Sudan. (Photo courtesy of ASMP) Spring 2015 • 23 UAA Alumni Profile UAA Alumni Profile from kenai cookouts amplifying the creativity of alaska’s youth to capitol hill Remember being 15 and having “Robert and I both still try to do some personal projects something important to say? Was here and there to stay relevant,” she said. “It also shows the Leila Kimbrell knows the value of an there someone who helped you shape students that I’m active in the community and I care about Alaska network—in fact, her East Coast your ideas and encouraged you to things—that I can produce things, not just teach them how gig came about over hot dogs and use your voice? For Alaska’s lucky to produce things.” hamburgers at a community picnic on young journalists, documentarians, the Kenai. A conversation with U.S. photographers and filmmakers, there’s Robards’ overarching goal is to help students create high- Sen. Lisa Murkowski that afternoon Rosey Robards (B.A. Journalism & quality, publishable media. “Robert and I both have high led to her current role—serving as a Public Communications ’05), director standards for students. That’s what Spirit of Youth [ATMI’s legislative assistant in D.C. of Alaska Teen Media Institute (ATMI) since 2007. Give her parent organization] is all about, too—setting high a few more years and ATMI alumni will be at the helm of expectations and giving students the tools they need to fulfill “To be honest, it came out of the blue,” Kimbrell said. creative content production across Alaska. those expectations.” She’d met the senator before—first while in college and paging in Juneau; again when campaigning on Murkowski’s Already, they’re taking on projects for organizations In addition to working full time as director of ATMI, senatorial bid during a summer break from law school. Both and companies around the state. The Alaska Nanuuq Robards also serves as president of the Alaska Press Club opportunities came about through Kimbrell’s sharp interest Kimbrell, left, discusses a proposal with Sen. Murkowski in her D.C. office at the Hart Senate Building. Commission and Defenders of Wildlife recently contracted and is a longtime member of Arctic Entries storyboard, two in staying connected to her Alaska roots. with ATMI to work with local youth in Wales, Shishmaref positions that help her strengthen ties between ATMI and and Point Hope. Together they created polar bear safety Alaska’s media community. A local music lover, she also She graduated in 2002 with a justice degree and paralegal She interviewed and accepted and—for now—she’s traded in videos aimed at area youth—a need identified by the co-created LiveinANC.com, a place to keep track of what certificate. “At UAA you were definitely a name first and wide-open Kenai forests for the limitless row houses of D.C. communities. Robards also just worked out a deal with shows are happening in Anchorage. See some recent ATMI foremost, and the professors knew who you were and they Although based on the opposite coast, her attention is still BP for her students to produce a radio piece and slideshow productions online, at tinyurl.com/AlumniSpirit. cared about that,” she recalled. “I think that makes a big on Alaska and she cites the semi-regular returns as “the best for BP Teachers of Excellence this spring. And some of her difference in your education process.” With a keen eye for part about my position.” youngest students are just wrapping up a PSA for Anchorage connections, she next enrolled at Willamette University in Reads at the Loussac Library—be on the lookout for Salem, Ore.—the oldest law school in the West. “I do a little bit of everything—researching, advising, reading, pun-making superheroes (find the video link at meeting with constituents in the areas that I cover,” she said UAA Alumni Spirit online). “Alaska doesn’t have its own law school, [but] Willamette of her day-to-day on Capitol Hill. She specifically focuses has a strong Alaska connection,” Kimbrell explained, citing on a number of economic policy areas, including tourism, As director of Alaska Teen Media Institute, KEEPING EXPECTATIONS HIGH Rosey Robards connects youths with local the school’s long history of educating Alaska’s lawyers budget and appropriations and small business (an area in and national media projects. (including, yes, Lisa Murkowski). In fact, her Willamette which she’s well-versed, having grown up helping at her Robards quickly learned the best feature of the ATMI office contacts helped secure that position on Murkowski’s 2004 parents’ small businesses in Soldotna). when she came on board as a volunteer in 2004: “Every campaign. student who comes here comes on their own accord. They Although her continued contact with Sen. Murkowski want to be here. It’s a very positive atmosphere.” Kimbrell returned to Alaska after law school and started a certainly helped her land the job in D.C., Kimbrell credits career in municipal law, first for her hometown of Soldotna her achievements to a strong work ethic, gained from The students keep Robards and ATMI’s assistant director, and later for a private Anchorage firm. Then came the picnic. growing up in a family business, and a legal knack for Robert Stormo (another UAA journalism alum), on interpreting policy, gained from her career experience in their toes professionally. Each day can be different— She ran into Sen. Murkowski at a citywide summer event in municipal law. designing something for print media, shooting a short Soldotna and, as the two caught up, the senator informed film, brainstorming ideas for their monthly radio show, her she was looking for an attorney to fill a position in And, of course, there’s her education. “I didn’t know this interviewing community members for a story, traveling Washington. “It was not something I sought out, but once was going to be the path I went on when I graduated from around the state for contract work. Students are full of we talked about it, it was simply an opportunity I could not UAA, but I definitely think the experience I had at UAA questions about new technologies in media production, pass up,” Kimbrell said. helped shape the path where I am now,” she said. too. The best way to give them answers? Keep working as freelancers in Alaska’s media industry.

24 • Fall 2014 Spring 2015 • 25 This page of alumni updates was compiled by Joey Besl of the UAA Office 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.

1979 guild. I teach swimming 2011 and reach my goals one daughter, with plans to and aqua aerobics a by one! I passed the New move the family to his Penny Cordes, B.A. few times a year, swim Kyrstin Worthen York Bar Exam on my first home state of Texas soon. Anthropology, went a few open-water races Szewczyk, B.A. Biological try, got a job with the on to earn a Ph.D. in and promote grassroots Sciences, writes, “I international law firm of anthropology from financial literacy. I moved to right Hughes Hubbard & Reed 2013 Stanford University in apply my education in after graduation for my LLP, I was officially sworn Bradford James Jackson, 1986. She now lives in unconventional ways, master’s in occupational in as a New York attorney B.A. Theatre and Dance, Anchorage and co- but on my own terms. therapy at the University last December and wrote, directed and directs the curriculum for Who knows what may yet of Washington. I married qualified as an attorney starred in the short OLE! Opportunities for come?” my physical therapy to practice before the filmCome Back Home, Lifelong Education—a classmate, Alex, in United State District Court a 14th-century Scottish nonprofit that organizes 2013. Now I work as an for the Southern and tale of love and war. The short courses to provide 2008 occupational therapist Eastern Districts of New 15-minute movie—filmed continuing education Erika Veth welcomed her in inpatient rehab and York in January. This is just entirely in Alaska—was for Anchorage adults second baby last year. absolutely love it. We the beginning and I’m selected for the Short throughout the year. Additionally, she was also enjoy kayaking and glad to still have UAA’s Film Corner at the 2014 promoted to director of attending games. Go constant support.” Cannes Film Festival. It 1993 online learning at Oregon Seattle Reign, Sounders was also featured by Peter Institute of Technology. and Seahawks!” Jackson’s and Richard Bridget M. M. Simpson, She lives with her family 2013 Taylor’s Weta Workshop B.A. English, writes from in Klamath Falls, Ore. 2011 Army veteran Kenneth (creators of ‘The Lord of the Ticonderoga, N.Y, “After Bracewell, B.H.S. Human Rings Trilogy’). The film 22 years, I’m now a single Rebeca E. Mosquera, M.S. Services, graduated is available on YouTube mom, in the house I 2010 Project Management, from UAA in three years under the account just bought on my own. Katie Marquette, B.A. went on to New York through the G.I. Bill. He Bradford Jackson Films. I’m blending part-time Sociology, recently University School of followed up his 2014 jobs, which support accepted a position Law, where she earned book—A Veteran’s Road the life I want. I finished in Gov. Bill Walker’s an LL.M. in International to College Success—with my M.B.A. a few years administration. She now Business Regulation, the 2015 release of The ago in health services serves as deputy press Litigation and Arbitration Post 9/11 Student Veteran: A management and work secretary for the Office of in 2013. She writes, “Thank Resource Guide for Student as a church office admin, the Governor, overseeing you, UAA, for equipping Veterans. Both books are director of fitness for social media and assisting me with the necessary available on Amazon. senior housing and tech with press relations from tools and skills to come He lives in Anchorage consultant for a local arts Anchorage and Juneau. to New York City, excel, with his wife and baby

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