AUUF Podcasts

Dick Mylius served 29 years with the Alaska Department of Natural Resources. From 2004 until his retirement in 2010 he was Director of the Division of Mining, Land and Water, which manages all state-owned land. Dick served as lead planner for projects in Bristol Bay, the Copper River Basin, and Southeast Alaska. He managed several projects to select lands for state ownership to fulfill statehood act land grants. During his career, he conducted over 100 public meetings regarding state lands in Alaskan communities from the tip of Southeast to the Northwest Arctic. Since retiring, Dick has been a core trainer for the Institute of the North’s ANILCA training, and does other land management trainings. He is active in the Cook Inlet Historical Society and Alaska Common Ground. Dick holds a BA in Geography from the State University of New York and a Master of Regional Planning from the University of Michigan, School of Natural Resources. He has two adult daughters.

Dick's slides can be found here -

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ny0aooujiljhu5e/Alaska%20Land%20History%20Anc%20Unitarian%20Fellowship%20-%20May%202021.pdf?dl=0

Ian Hartman is a professor and Chair of the Department of History at the University of Alaska Anchorage. He researches and teaches on race, culture, and public policy in the American West, and is particularly interested in issues regarding power, wealth, and inequality. He teaches history from the bottom-up and stresses how regular people have changed the course of American history in ways both big and small. He recently partnered with the National Park Service to write a Black history of Alaska and with the University of Washington Press to reissue and expand the study. He has also partnered with the Anchorage Museum on exhibitions and continuing education courses. He earned his bachelor’s degree in History at the University of Pennsylvania in 2004 and completed his PhD at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2011. He enjoys hiking, traveling, talking politics, and cheering his beloved Steelers, Pirates, and Penguins.

Cal Williams is a community activist. Born in Monroe, Louisiana, he graduated college, served in the United States Air Force during the early 1960s, participated in the historic March on Washington, and was affiliated with the Congress of Racial Equality. In 1965, he moved to Alaska, seeking job opportunities, racial integration and a better life. He has served as President of the Alaska Chapter of the NAACP, and as District 22 chair for the Alaska Democratic Party, was a delegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention, and ran for the Alaska House of Representatives. Cal served as the Filipino choir director at St. Anthony’s Catholic Church, as Grand Knight of the Knights of Columbus at St. Patrick's Church, and as chaplain for American Legion Post 34. He helped exhibit the collection of the late historian George Harper, who documented the history of African Americans in Alaska. Cal is a past board member for Anchorage Senior Activity Center.

Here is a link to Ian's page at UAA - https://www.uaa.alaska.edu/academics/college-of-arts-and-sciences/departments/history/faculty/hartman.cshtml

Here is a link to "When Black Troops Built the Al-Can" The Forum podcast from 11 September 2016 - http://auuf-podcasts.org/AUUF_Podcasts/podcastgen/?name=2016-09-11_20160911_0900.mp3

Here is a link to the Anchorage Museum Ehibitiopn - Black Lives in Alaska: Journey, Justice, Joy - https://www.anchoragemuseum.org/exhibits/black-lives-in-alaska-journey-justice-joy/

Carolyn Forché is a poet, a human rights advocate, and professor at Georgetown University. She coined the term “poetry of witness,” and her work has been translated into more than twenty languages. She is the editor of the ground-breaking 1993 anthology, Against Forgetting: Twentieth-Century Poetry of Witness. The first of her five published collections of poetry won the prestigious Yale Younger Poets award in 1975, and her 2019 book What You Have Heard is True: A Memoir of Witness and Resistance was named a finalist for the National Book Award for Nonfiction and won the Juan E. Méndez Book Award for Human Rights in Latin America. In between she’s received grants and awards too numerous to mention, including a Guggenheim Fellowship that allowed her to travel to El Salvador as part of Amnesty International, in time to witness the unfolding civil war, which she wrote about in The Country between Us in 1981.

She and her husband of nearly 40 years live in Maryland. For more, check

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/carolyn-forche

and

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolyn_Forch%C3%A9

Dennis and Annie Ronsse both grew up with vegetable gardening in Kansas. After completing MS degrees in biology, they moved to rural Alaska in 1981, where they taught school and enjoyed a subsistence lifestyle, a trapline, and the remarkable Yup’ik culture. Several summers “B.C.” (before children) were spent doing seasonal work with US Fish & Wildlife, bird and botanical projects.  In 1989 they moved their little family to Anchorage, and in ’97 got back to gardening when Annie helped create Mardane’s Garden, which currently involves seven households.  Also, Dennis built terraced beds on a steep slope behind their house where they organically grow vegetables, herbs, and flowers, providing a year-round food supply. Since retirement, they have become grandparents and adventure travelers. Motivated to leave a healthy world for the grandkids, they have also been involved with the Alaska Native Plant Society—Dennis is the immediate past president—and Citizens Climate Lobby, in which Annie takes a very active role.

Link to presentation - http://akwebguy.com/AUUF/Annie&DennisRonssePresentation

Meg Zaletel is a member of the Anchorage Assembly, and chairs its Committee on Housing and Homelessness, and co-chairs its AMATS Policy Committee. Fresh out of Drake University Law School, Meg took a job with the Disability Law Center of Alaska in Anchorage, sight unseen. This not only brought her to Alaska but gave her valuable experience working on systemic issues. She later earned a certificate of Mental Disability Law from New York Law School, and still practices law, but she has shifted her focus to community and neighborhood engagement by establishing and running the Anchorage Community House. Each year she volunteers at the MLK Day Legal Clinic, which keeps her grounded in the needs of our community and reminds her of the impact volunteers can make. Meg lives in Midtown with her husband Zach, their daughter Zelda, and two dogs.

Dr. Adam Grove is a naturopathic, family-practice doctor specializing in children and adults with neurological challenges. He emphasizes a whole-person focus with attention to accurate diagnosis and holistic treatment for brain-based issues. He works with people of all ages experiencing symptoms of ADD/ADHD, autism, brain injury and the like. Dr. Grove received his doctorate from Bastyr University in Seattle, Washington in 2002. He also holds a Master of Arts degree in Soviet Area Studies from the Naval Postgraduate School and a Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering. He is a member of the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians, the Board of Directors for the Alaska Brain Injury Network, and the Advisory Board for the Center for Educational Improvement. Dr. Grove lives in Anchorage with his wife, daughter and a handful of friendly dogs.​Rachael Hannah is an associate professor of biological sciences at University of Alaska Anchorage since 2015. She grew up in Vermont, and her love for science blossomed at an early age. Dr. Hannah earned her B.S. in Marine Biology and Molecular Biology from Florida Institute of Technology and Ph.D. in Anatomy & Neurobiology from University of Vermont, College of Medicine. As a neuroscientist, her research interests explore howblood vessels in our brains control the amount of sugar and oxygen delivered to brain cells, and how this control can become unregulated after a stroke or traumatic brain injury. She is currently exploring a new animal model using the red-eared slider turtle to discover how some organisms; brain cells survive in low oxygen environments. She’s an advocate for  ncreasing students access to experiential learning opportunities throughout their undergraduate careers. When not in the lab or teaching, Rachael enjoys skiing, hiking, and biking with her family and friends.

Link to presentation slides (PDF) - https://www.dropbox.com/s/fa4yd78tfmn2kqy/AUUF040421BrainInjury.pdf?dl=0​

Patrice Icardi is an elder law attorney in Anchorage, Alaska. She is a Pennsylvania native and a graduate of Florida State University (1977 B.A. American Studies), Duquesne University School of Law (1981 Juris Doctor) and Stetson University College of Law (2010 Masters of Law in Elder Law (LL.M.) Ms. Icardi is a member of the Alaska Bar Association and the Florida and Pennsylvania Bars but practices exclusively in Alaska. She is a member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA), and Elder Counsel and serves on the Board of the ARC Foundation. Her practice areas include the issues and concerns of the elderly and disabled populations. That includes Medicaid planning, wills, probate, Special Needs Trusts and guardianship and conservatorships. She is a solo practitioner.

Human Services Community Resource List (pdf) - https://www.dropbox.com/s/q6mq0i39cedhdo1/adrc%20211%20community%20resources%20list.pdf?dl=0

Patrice's slides - http://akwebguy.com/AUUF/SAFEGUARDING%20&%20PROTECTING%20OUR%20ELDERS/#0

Libby Roderick is Director of the Difficult Dialogues Initiative and Associate Director of the faculty development center at the University of Alaska Anchorage. She works with faculty across the U.S. and in South Africa and is Associate Editor of Start Talking: A Handbook for Engaging Difficult Dialogues in Higher Education, and co-author of Stop Talking: Indigenous Ways of Teaching and Learning and Difficult Dialogues in Higher Education. Libby is also an internationally recognized, award-winning singer/songwriter, recording artist, and activist who has performed alongside Coretta Scott King and Walter Cronkite and appeared at venues across North America. Her music has received worldwide airplay— and traveled to Mars—and was performed at the UN conference in Beijing. Her essays, poems, and songs have appeared in numerous movies, books, and publications. The YWCA, and so many others, have recognized her as a Woman of Achievement. Libby graduated Summa Cum Laude from Yale University with a degree in American Studies and received her M.A. in Social Psychology from Alaska Pacific University.

Link to chat - https://www.dropbox.com/s/o6qutq4sw4evr42/Chat.pdf?dl=0

The Social Dilemma - https://www.thesocialdilemma.com/

Start Talking - https://www.uaa.alaska.edu/academics/institutional-effectiveness/ departments/center-for-advancing-faculty-excellence/difficult-dialogues/handbooks/ start-talking

Sylvia Short lived a happily outspoken life as a committed social activist in Anchorage for more than a half-century -- and now, as she turns 100, we’re happy to report she’s no less out-spoken living with her son and daughter-in-law in Reno, Nev. Born on March 14, 1921, in Stockton, Calif., she became what she calls “an uneducated lawyer,” managing to pass the California bar exam after just two years of college. Moving to Alaska in 1967, she continued working as a lawyer and helped organize the fledgling Unitarian fellowship in the Log Cabin Church, later serving as AUUF board president. The following year she married Anchorage Community College Director Eugene Short, a childhood acquaintance who shared Sylvia’s love of books. And that’s just the beginning of her story.

George Bryson is a journalist and educator who’s lived in Anchorage since 1979. He worked for the Daily News for 30 years and taught courses in literary nonfiction and journalism at both UAA and UAF. George and his wife Ann are the parents of three grown daughters. He’s been an active member of AUUF since 2012.

George Bryson's slides - http://www.akwebguy.com/AUUF/Sylvia

Megan Webb's video of refurbishing the Steinway -https://youtu.be/2pfm2ddQK8g

Megan Webb's Happy Birthday - https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vR3Hdmas0NxVFCWGH7ntTKsGTGj90Ul37kViDcOSpwnKfJ6OYVo4DyPyM4jlW3bzNFLB-8iRL0DgaQz/pub?start=true&loop=false&delayms=60000

Chris Rose is the founder and Executive Director of REAP—Renewable Energy Alaska Project. He has worked as a fundraiser for various non-profit public interest groups around the United States, receiving his law degree from the University of Oregon with a Certificate in environmental and Natural Resources Law along the way. For 12 years, his private practice in Alaska included representation of Native Alaskans from Northwest Arctic villages and the mediation of a variety of disputes around the state. He has been very active in local community affairs and has served on various statewide boards, including the Renewable Energy Grant Fund Advisory Committee, which he currently chairs. From 2004 to 2008 he wrote a monthly opinion column for the Anchorage Daily News. He enjoys traveling, gardening, and exploring Alaska.

Some interesting/useful URLs -

March 2021 Half portion recipient - Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness - https://aceh.org

Chris's slides - http://www.akwebguy.com/AUUF/ChrisRoseSlides/

REAP - https://alaskarenewableenergy.org

Lazard - Levelized Cost of Energy and Levelized Cost of Storage – 2020 - https://www.lazard.com/perspective/levelized-cost-of-energy-and-levelized-cost-of-storage-2020/

Regarding the "fast charging" of EVs - https://www.myev.com/research/interesting-finds/is-dc-fast-charging-bad-for-your-electric-car

Regarding the new safer nuclear energy plants - https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/02/27/136920/the-new-safer-nuclear-reactors-that-might-help-stop-climate-change/

Regarding rare-earth mineral mining in SE AK - https://www.mining-technology.com/projects/bokan-dotson-ridge-rare-earth-element-project-southeast-alaska/

Regarding the cost of nuclear power plant energy - https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/05/what-does-nuclear-power-really-cost/

Regarding Mount Spurr geothermal plans - https://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/238570563.shtml

Regarding Missoula MT electric buses - https://www.missoulaclimate.org/electricbuses.html

Regarding Missoula, MT "Mountain Line" bus fares - https://mountainline.com/zero-fare/

Regarding the improvement in heat pump technology - https://www.iea.org/reports/heat-pumps

Regarding Canada's Carbon Fee & Dividend Policy - https://community.citizensclimate.org/events/item/24/5829

Lanmine article - https://alaskalandmine.com/landmines/plug-and-chug-driving-an-electric-car-from-vermont-to-alaska-during-a-pandemic/