AUUF Podcasts

Let quiet words and music soothe your soul if you are finding this holiday season to be difficult. 

Jeanine Heath-McGlinn is a licensed professional counselor and clinical supervisor in private practice. A lifelong Alaskan, she is a survivor of suicide who has lost family members and others to suicide. Though recently retired from the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District, she worked for 24 years as a high school counselor, as part of their crisis response team, and was the primary author of the school district's crisis response manual. She was part of a team that created several suicide prevention eLearning modules with the Alaska Department of Education for educators, as well as student suicide prevention curriculum for 5th-12th grade students. Jeanine served on the original Alaska Statewide Suicide Prevention Council and helped to write the first state suicide prevention plan. She has traveled throughout Alaska conducting over 50 ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training) workshops. 

A conversation in lieu of the scheduled speaker

Courtney Alexander is a Yale graduate and long-time researcher and strategist for UNITE HERE, a union representing workers in the hotel, gaming, food service, airport, textile, manufacturing, distribution, laundry, and transportation industries throughout the U.S. and Canada. A Nevada resident, Courtney has served UNITE HERE for over 30 years by unraveling the corporate financial structures of the hotel, gaming, and culinary industry giants, and understands how corporations influence the hospitality industry all the way to the hourly workers on the front lines. Courtney has delved into the world of commercial real estate, acquisitions and mergers of hotel giants, investment trusts and the resulting dehumanization of workers throughout the hospitality industry. She fights for equality and social justice daily and believes education and advocacy on these issues can make a difference in the lives of working people 

Becky Roberts was born and raised in Anchorage in an AUUF family. During her time at Macalester College in Minnesota—a school with a concept of global citizenship—she had the opportunity to visit Uganda with a Somali classmate and later returned there to work on youth empowerment projects. Becky also immersed herself in Anchorage’s rich international culture. She volunteered as a family mentor for the Refugee Assistance and Immigration Services and taught English at the Alaska Literacy Program. Later she served four years as a Peace Corps Volunteer teaching environmental education in Mexico, then started the independent collective organization Raíces del Mundo (Roots of the World) to promote cultural and environmental consciousness. In addition to traveling and learning about cultures, she also enjoys hiking, yoga, drawing mandalas, dancing, and music. Together for a better world! 

Tony Gasbarro is a professor emeritus in UAF’s School of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences. He was the state extension forester for the Cooperative Extension Service and retired in 1996 after 23 years on the faculty. Tony completed two Peace Corps assignments, in El Salvador and the Dominican Republic, spent nearly three years as a project operations officer in Rome with the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, and served five years as a field forester with the U.S. Forest Service in California and Alaska. After 45 years in Fairbanks, Tony moved to Raven’s Roost co-housing in Anchorage. He actively oversees scholarship programs and community development projects for a non-profit helping the poor in rural El Salvador. He has visited El Salvador for three to five weeks annually since finishing his last Peace Corps assignment there in 1998. 

Karlin Itchoak is Alaska State Director of The Wilderness Society. He is Inupiat and grew up in Nome with family from Utqiaqvik and upstate New York. He graduated from UAF and earned his law degree from Gonzaga University. Professional experience includes working for Ukpeagvik Inupiat Native Corporation, the Institute of the North, and the Berkowitz gubernatorial campaign, clerking for the Chief Justice of the Alaska Supreme Court, and conducting economic development plans for the Bering Strait region. He co-founded a consulting company focused on Arctic business relations, partnerships, and diplomacy. He currently serves on the boards of the Alaska Center and Alaska Institute of Justice, and previously served as elected President of the Nome Eskimo Community Council. Karlin is passionate about defending Native subsistence rights, climate adaptation issues in the Arctic, circumpolar policymaking, and preserving Alaska Native cultures. 

Eddy Carroll is a self-proclaimed UU Evangelist, always willing to share our good news with others. He has served 3 UU congregations over the last few decades in almost every leadership role possible including being the President of two congregational boards. He has also been on committees both for the UUA and the MDD. He graduated from the Russell Lockwood Leadership School in 1999 and was on its staff in 2000. Doing BCTs are hands down a joy for him. He is presently a Member of The First Unitarian Society in Denver CO where he is on the Religious Exploration Committee, Chairs the Green Sanctuary Committee, administers the Church's Facebook Page and is known as "The Church Lady". He is an Intake Specialist at The St. Francis Center, a Day Shelter serving the Homeless Community of Denver. He lives in Denver with his husband Glenn. While they have been together for over 32 years, they were finally able to legally marry in Colorado in December of 2014. 

Robin Brena served as Chairman of Governor Walker’s Transition Subcommittee on Oil and Gas Matters and has given expert testimony on oil and gas-related matters to the Alaska Legislature. Mr. Brena is the owner and managing attorney of Brena, Bell & Walker, P.C., which he founded in 1988. His practice focuses on oil and gas, pipeline, public utilities, tax assessment, telecommunications, real estate, and commercial litigation issues. Mr. Brena’s trial and appellate work in state and federal courts and regulatory agencies includes successfully prosecuting multiple cases in which greater than one billion dollars has been at issue. A life-long Alaskan, he has three graduate degrees in business and law. Mr. Brena is active in the Alaska Bar Association and has taught Advanced Business Law at UAA and guest-lectured at Willamette University College of Law. 

Dr. Cathy Sandeen has served since September 2018 as Chancellor of the University of Alaska Anchorage, Alaska’s largest postsecondary institution. Prior to joining the University of Alaska system, Sandeen was chancellor of the University of Wisconsin Colleges and UW-Extension for four years. As a vice president at the American Council on Education, she led ACE's nationwide effort to increase post-secondary educational attainment. She also held leadership positions at the University of California system including at UCLA, Santa Cruz, and San Francisco. Sandeen earned a Ph.D. in communication from the University of Utah and a Master of Business Administration degree from the UCLA Anderson School of Management. She was named an American Council on Education Fellow in 2010-11. A prolific writer and speaker, Sandeen has published and presented widely on the issues surrounding educational innovation and nontraditional students. 

Rev. Dr. Jonipher Kwong had a pluralistic upbringing in the Philippines, from Evangelical to United Methodist, Episcopalian to Calvary Chapel; he was christened at a Gospel church and baptized as a Chinese Mennonite. In Hawai'i, he joined the Honolulu Mindfulness Community, inspired by Zen Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hahn. He obtained his Master of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry degrees from Claremont School of Theology and served as minister to various congregations in Hawai'i and California. Since 2015 Rev. Dr. Kwong has served as Congregational Life Staff in the Unitarian Universalist Association Pacific Western Region. He is also a Program Leader for the UU College of Social Justice. He is the Regional Specialist for Leadership Development and Racial Justice (Multicultural Transformation). He currently resides in Los Angeles with his husband of 21 years and their 10-year-old cat Swipher.