Robert E. Price was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1933. He has law degrees from DePaul University and New York University. He has lived in Alaska since 1967 and has specialized in Alaska Native law. He is the author of "The Great Father in Alaska", a study of federal Indian policy in Alaska. He has been interestd in Russian affairs since a visit there in 1984.
Alexander
Dolitsky was born and raised in Kiev in the former Soviet Union. He
received an M.A. in history from Kiev Pedagogical Institute, Ukraine in
1976; an M.A. in anthropology and archaeology from Brown University in
1983; and attended the Ph.D. program in anthropology at Bryn Mawr
College from 1983 to 1985, where he was also lecturer in the Russian
Center. In the USSR, he was a social studies teacher for three years
and an archaeologist for five years for the Ukranian Academy of
Sciences. In 1978, he settled in the United States. Dolitsky visited
Alaska for the first time in 1981, while conducting field research for
graduate school at Brown. He then settled first in Sitka in 1985 and
then in Juneau in 1986. From 1985 to 1987, he was U.S. Forest Service
archaeologist and social scientist. He was an Adjunct Assistant
Professor of Russian Studies at the University of Alaska Southeast from
1985 to 1999; Social Studies Instructor at the Alyeska Central School,
Alaska Department of Education and Yukon-Koyukuk School District from
1988 to 2006; and Director of the Alaska-Siberia Research Center (see www.aksrc.org)
from 1990 to present. He has done about 30 field studies in various
areas of the former Soviet Union (including Siberia), Central Asia,
South America, Eastern Europe and the United States (including Alaska).
Dolitsky has been a lecturer on the World Discoverer and Spirit of
Oceanus vessels in the Arctic and Sub-Arctic regions. He was the
Project Manager for the WWII Alaska-Siberia Lend Lease Memorial, which
was erected in Fairbanks in 2006. He has published extensively in the
fields of anthropology, history, archaeology, and ethnography. His more
recent publications include Fairy Tales and Myths of the Bering Strait Chukchi, Ancient Tales of Kamchatka, Tales and Legends of the Yupik Eskimos of Siberia, Old Russia in Modern America: A Case from Russian Old Believers in Alaska, and Allies in Wartime: The Alaska-Siberia Airway During World War II. He is currently working on a book entitled Fairy Tales of the Siberian Tiger.
Bill Ruddy, former President, AKSRC. Attorney. Ruddy, Bradley & Kolkhorst Corporation; Juneau, Alaska.
Born: New Haven, Connecticut, July 19, 1937. Admitted to bar: 1962, Connecticut; 1966, Alaska and U.S. District Court, District of Alaska; 1974, U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. Education: Yale University (B.A., 1959; LL.B., 1962). With Office of General Counsel, Federal Maritime Commission, 1964. Assistant Attorney General, State of Alaska, 1965. Trustee, Alaska Legal Services Corporation, Inc., 1972-1976. Member: Alaska Board of Marine Pilot Examiners, 1986-1988. Member: Juneau (President, 1970), Alaska and American Bar Associations.
Dr. Jeffrey Hahn, Professor of Political Sciences, Department of Political Sciences,
Jeffrey W. Hahn is a Professor of Political
Science at Villanova University specializing in Russian politics. He
also serves as the Director of the Russian Area Studies Concentration
(RASCON) at Villanova.
Professor Hahn received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania
in 1966 and his Ph.D. from Duke University in 1971. He is the author of
Soviet Grassroots: Citizen Participation in Local Soviet Government
(Princeton University Press, 1988) and co-editor (with Theodore H.
Friedgut) of Local Power and Post Soviet Politics (M.E. Sharpe, 1994).
In February of 1996, a book was published which he edited entitled
Democratization in Russia: The Development of Legislative Institutions.
He has also published articles on political culture, on political
participation, and on local government in Russia. These have appeared
in the British Journal of Political Science, the Slavic Review,
Post-Soviet Affairs, Problems of Communism and Polity, among other
journals. Many of his recent publications draw on field work conducted
in Russia from 1990-1997 supported by grants from the Carnegie
Corporation of New York, from the National Council for Soviet and East
European Research, and from the International Research and Exchange
Board (IREX). In recognition of his research efforts, Professor Hahn
received "The Outstanding Faculty Research Award" from Villanova
University in 1998.
Professor Hahn was a visiting Fulbright Professor for a semester in
the Law Faculty of Moscow State University in 1987. He also spent the
1990-91 academic year as a visiting Professor in the Political Science
Department at the University of California in Berkeley. He has been as
a consultant for various agencies of the U.S. government, including the
Department of State, and for private organizations as well. In addition
to his professional academic work, Professor Hahn held elective office
for two terms (1976-1984) as a city councilman in Radnor, Pennsylvania,
where he served on the personnel committee (chair) and on the community
development committee.
Dr. Anna Kerttula
Program Director
Arctic Social Sciences
Office of Polar Programs/NSF
Dr. Anna M. Kerttula was born and raised in Alaska, the daughter of a prominent Alaskan, Senator Jalmar M. Kerttula. She graduated from the University of Alaska with a BS in Anthropology and Mathematics. She entered the University of Alaska, Fairbanks to complete a Master's Degree in Anthropology. Her PhD is in Anthropology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Her dissertation was based on 2 years of research in a small community in the Russian Far East on the Chukotka Peninsula working with Chukchi and Yup'ik people.
She has written numerous articles based on her research and published a book with Cornell University Press, Antler on the Sea, an ethnography of the people of Sireniki, Russia.
Dr. Kerttula went to Washington, DC in 1992 to work with U.S. Senator Stevens as his Special Assistant for Russian Affairs, and later worked as the Associate Director for Natural Resources, Fisheries, and the Environment for the Alaska Governor's Office in Washington, DC. Currently, she is Program Director of Arctic Social Sciences for the Office of Polar Programs/NSF.
Miriam Lancaster, Treasurer AKSRC Captain (Ret.) US Public Health Service Health Care Consultant, Seattle, WA.
CAPT Lancaster retired August 1, 2006 from the United States Public Health service with 35 years of government service and over 40 years of health care experience. She worked for Indian Health Service and Tribes in Anchorage, Ketchikan, and Sitka for over 21 years. There she served in various roles of health care delivery and administration. Additionally she has 7 years of health care experience in the Veterans Administration. CAPT Lancaster holds a Public Health Nurse credential, a Bachelors of Science degree in Nursing from Loma Linda University and a Masters of Education degree with adult cross-cultural emphasis from the University of Alaska. She has published several articles including "Botulism: North To Alaska" in the American Journal of Nursing. Her interest in health care issues of indigenous people prompts her to volunteer in Guyana, South America on the Venezuela border where she lived as a child. She is writing The Scent of Lemon, a historical novel set in the country of Guyana. Currently she has her own consulting business, MLCI, where she does special projects for several government agencies. Miriam enjoys kayaking and managing her vacation rental, Lavender Cove Cottage. Her home is on Lake Ketchum near Stanwood, WA.
Mead Treadwell, Director, AKSRC. Commissioner, U.S. Arctic Research Commission. Senior Fellow, Institute of the North.
Mead Treadwell's first visit to the Russian Far East occurred in 1981. He joined former Governor and U.S. Interior Secretary Walter J. Hickel on trip from Khabarovsk to Moscow, with stops in Yakutia, Irkutsk, Bratsk, and Novosibirsk. He returned to Russia in 1988 as one of the organizers of the first Friendship Flight which melted the ice curtain between Alaska and Russia. His Siberia Alaska Trading Company later pioneered international ecotourism in the Chukotka and Magadan regions. As Deputy Commissioner of Environmental Conservation in the Hickel Administration, 1990-1994, he helped create the Northern Forum, the emergency response and environmental monitoring programs of the Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy (now continuing through the Arctic Council), as well as bilateral environmental and nuclear safety cooperation with Chukotka. Today, Treadwell is a Senior Fellow at the Institute of the North, with work focusing on Arctic infrastructure and security issues. He serves as a Commissioner on the U.S. Arctic Research Commission, appointed by the President to advise him and Congress on goals for U.S. Arctic research. He is chairman of Venture Ad Astra, an Anchorage-based technology venture development firm, and serves on the boards of Immersive Media Co., (TVX:IMC), Arctic Transportation Services, Baltimore Dredges, LLC., and Owner State Wireless, LLC. He is former president of the Alaska World Affairs Council, and is active in a number of non-profit boards and charities.
Honorary Directors
John Binkley, Former Alaska State Senator, President of the Riverboat Discovery Inc.,
John
and Judy Binkley, the proud parents of four children, were both born
and currently reside in Fairbanks. John serves as Chairman and CEO of
his family's tour business, which owns and operates sternwheel
riverboats on the rivers of Interior Alaska. He also serves as
Chairman of the Board of the Alaska Railroad Corporation, a position he
has held since 1997. John and Judy previously lived in Bethel, where
they built a tug and barge business that operated on the Yukon and
Kuskokwim Rivers, as well as the coast of the Bering Sea.
John is a former State Senator and served as co-chairman of the
Senate Finance Committee. Reflecting his commitment to strengthen
rural Alaskan communities while in the Legislature, he served on many
fisheries committees, subsistence committees, and committees dealing
with alcohol and drug abuse. He was directly involved with the U.S.
State Department negotiations of international fisheries treaties in
the North Pacific, including Japan, Canada, and Russia.
He has also served in a number of key capacities, including a
Presidential appointment to the Alaska Federation of Natives'
Commission on the Status of Alaska Natives; the advisory board to the
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services on Substance Abuse
Prevention; President of the Bering Sea Commercial Fisheries
Association from 1991 to 1998; and member of the Board of Directors of
the Alaska-Siberia Research Center since 1990.
John has been a U.S. Merchant Marine licensed captain since 1972.
A private pilot with over 3,000 hours, he has multi-engine, instrument,
and float ratings. He is also an FAA licensed airframe and powerplant
mechanic. John enjoys playing and coaching hockey in his spare time.
He also has the distinction of being the first person to drive from the
Arctic Ocean in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to Ushia, Tierra del Fuego on the
tip of South America by motorcycle in 1975-76.
Kristen Fulton Founder of the Russian Folk Ensemble “SitNiks” Sitka, Alaska ksf3000@yahoo.com
Kristine Fulton has called Alaska home since 1981. She has lived in Juneau, Kodiak and now Sitka over these years. From 1990-1994, she and her husband sailed their own 36 sailboat “Mew” around the world. Since moving to Sitka in 1991, she has been an active member of the Russian Folk Dance Group the “New Archangel Dancers,” serving as their Dance Director from 2003 to 2005. Currently she is a founding member of the Russian Folk Ensemble, “SitNiks” from Sitka and plays the Russian “Domra.” She is also an active member of the “Balalaika and Domra Association of America” (BDAA).
Professionally, she is a pharmacist, graduating from the University of Michigan, and currently works at Mt. Edgecombe Hospital Pharmacy-SEARHC, in Sitka. Kristine and John Fulton have two wonderful sons, Owen and Connor.
Dr. Charles Holmes Senior Archaeologist, Department of Anthropology University of Alaska Anchorage Anchorage, Alaska afceh@uaa.alaska.edu
Dr. Charles E. Holmes has over 30 years of archaeology experience throughout Alaska. He received a B.A. ('70) and M.A. ('74) in anthropology from the University of Alaska and a PH.D. from Washington State University in 1984. He served as cultural resources specialist on the Joint Federal-State Land Use Planning Commission for Alaska in 1972-1974. From 1980-1982 Charles was the statewide coordinator for the Bureau of Land Management cultural resource program and in 1983-1984 was the supervisory archaeologist for the heritage sites inventory under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. Until his retirement from the Alaska Office of History and Archaeology in 2004 Charles was the cultural resource management supervisor and archaeology projects director. Dr. Holmes is currently an archaeological consultant with Gudgel and Holmes Associates and Affiliate Assistant Professor at UAA. His academic interests include long-term archaeological research in central Alaska. He has numerous articles published in journals, e.g., Arctic Research of the United States, Current Research in the Pleistocene, Arctic Anthropology, Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska, Archaeometry, and American Antiquity. His recent publications include: “The Taiga Period: Holocene Archaeology of the Northern Boreal Forest”, Alaska in the Alaska Journal of Anthropology; and “The Beringian and Transitional Periods in Alaska: Technology of the East Beringian Tradition as Viewed from Swan Point” (a chapter to be published by the Texas A & M University press).
