Heba El-Hendi is the Senior Director at CSS’s Refugee Assistance and Immigration Services, bringing over a decade of experience in international development, refugee rights advocacy, and program management. She has worked with UNHCR and USAID, focusing on service delivery, community relations, and partnerships—including work in Western Sahara and Algiers. A Fletcher School graduate from Tufts University, she holds a master’s in human security, refugee & migration studies, and development economics, and earned her bachelor’s at Emory University. She held a Fulbright Teaching Assistantship in Morocco, and was a PeacePlayers International Fellow in Jerusalem. More recently, she served as Leadership Academy Director for PeacePlayers International. Passionate about supporting vulnerable populations, she has dedicated her career to addressing global inequality and conflict.

Nina Kempell is currently owner of the consulting company, Altius, Fortius where she is working with the Alaska Cultural Trust to develop a fundraising campaign to enable the Trust to provide grants directly to arts and culture organizations. Previously, Kemppel was CEO at the Alaska Community Foundation where she oversaw many successful programs such as Pick.Click.Give and the Social Justice Fund, and partnered with the State to distribute $70 million in COVID-19 grant support to nonprofit organizations. Nina has also served as the CEO at the Alaska Humanities Forum, a principal at the Coraggio Group in Oregon and a consultant at the global consulting firm, Oliver Wyman. She holds a BA in Economics from Dartmouth College and an MBA from the Tuck School of Business. Prior to her business career, Kemppel had an international nordic ski racing career spanning 13 years that included a record-breaking 18 U.S. National Championships and four Olympic Winter Games. Kemppel has also won the Mount Marathon race nine times, eight consecutively. She also served on the Board of Directors for the U.S. Olympic Committee from 2010 to 2018.

Slides - https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/syq7lcv7u6p9q946dnxpq/AUUF_Alaska-Cultural-Trust-Presentation_06.22.2025_PDF2.pdf?rlkey=klkqarr06qrdmqazvmkmjikho&dl=0

Tim Bradneris publisher of the Alaska Economic Report and Alaska Legislative Digest, and has written extensively on Alaska natural resource and economic issues. He has lived and worked in Alaska since 1962, attending the University of Alaska in Fairbanks and then working as a reporter for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and the Tundra Times, an Alaska Native weekly newspaper. As a journalist Bradner covered the Alaska Native lands claims movement in the 1960s and its settlement in 1971, the major oil discoveries on the North Slope and early planning for the trans-Alaska oil pipeline. He joined BPs external affairs group in 1970 and represented the company before the state Legislature until 1985. His work for BP gave him working insights into an international energy company as well as Alaskas efforts in oil and gas tax and environmental policy. He attended Harvards Kennedy School of Government in 1985 and 1986 and returned to Alaska with a Master of Public Administration. Since 1986 Bradner has been co-publisher of the family-owned Alaska Legislative Digest and Alaska Economic Report with his brother Mike, now deceased. The publishing business he started with his now-deceased brother, Mike, he now continues with his wife, Shehla Anjum, an editor, and his daughter Saira, who manages the companys information systems.

Aubrey Wieber is Executive Director of the 907 Initiative, a public policy watchdog organization based in Anchorage. The 907 Initiative uses mass communications to deliver information on elected officials and issues to Alaskans through a variety of paid advertising platforms. Recent programs include long-term campaigns focusing on former Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson, increasing the base student allocation for public education, and taking funding away from the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority to fund critical programs. Before working in political communications, Aubrey was a newspaper reporter throughout the greater Northwest, including working for the Anchorage Daily News.

Slides - https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/18vgc89k1ummdptjwvm6c/AUUF-June-2025.pdf?rlkey=e61j497h5oueqq0fjr0vi2s1t&dl=0

Be aware of "An event for writing letters and postcards to Senator Murkowski" in support of Medicaid and Planned Parenthood, this Tuesday, 10 June, at the fellowship from 6:30 to 88:30 PM.

Löki Gale Tobin was elected in 2022 to represent District I (downtown Anchorage and Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson) in the Alaska Senate. Born and raised in Nome, she is a University of Alaska Anchorage graduate and holds a master’s degree in rural development from the University of Alaska Fairbanks Peace Corps Master’s International Program, having served as a Youth Development Volunteer in Azerbaijan from 2008-2011. Currently, she's a PhD candidate at UAF; her research topic is focused on culturally responsive education. Löki has worked in marketing and communications for Alaskan nonprofits like Boys & Girls Clubs, Kawerak, and the Alaska Community Foundation. She was also a certified fundraiser for the Anchorage Museum. Löki met her mentor, Tom Begich, on one of his many trips to Nome, and eventually joined his legislative team in Juneau as Policy Director. Löki has worked to expand universal, voluntary pre-K across Alaska, protect renters and homeowners from predatory insurance practices, and recognize the resiliency and continued saliency of the Alaska constitution. She's an avid bicycle commuter and community volunteer.

Slides - https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/mk19ubvg54adnyn6e2vhb/2025AnchorageUU.pdf?rlkey=lewcem18w4uawhpekfxbvju8z&dl=0

email - Sen.Loki.Tobin@akleg.gov

Dr. Jennifer Schmidt works at the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) at the University of Alaska, as an associate professor of Natural Resource Management and Policy. She has been at ISER since 2015, and before that was in Norway for a few years and Fairbanks since 2002. Jens research revolves around humans and the environment, which means her interests are broad. Currently she works on wildfire risk and resilience, food/water/energy security, and land use. Some of the tools she uses are spatial analysis, surveys, interviews, and workshops. Jen earned Bachelor of Science degrees in Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior and in Genetics and Cellular Biology of University of MinnesotaTwin Cities in 1999, and her Ph.D. in Wildlife Biology from University of Alaska Fairbanks in 2007.

For Dr. Schmidts CV, see https://iseralaska.org/people/name/jennifer-schmidt/

Slides - https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/sxivkp8b8ns8lywc6l7x8/Living-with-Wildfire1.pdf?rlkey=mg8f46rciio59q2slhak24zxu&dl=0

There are video's associated with pages 2 & 28 of the PDF file. If you click on the images on those pages, the videos should open in a webbrowser tab or page. Let me know if you have questions.

Ken Blaylock has lived in Alaska for over 50 years. He served over 20 years in the military, earned a Bronze Star Medal from service in Iraq, and retired as a Lieutenant Colonel. Ken has been a whistleblower on drugs, sexual assaults, and illegal expenditures of money that led to the removal of multiple senior personnel from the Alaska Army National Guard. He is a small business owner, running his own martial arts school, where he is an instructor. He is also a Certified Master Gardener, a beekeeper, and owns and operates a farm.

Jenny McNulty came to Alaska in 2021 to serve as the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at University of Alaska Anchorage. Before that, she spent 25 years in big sky country, as a professor and administrator at University of Montana. She majored in both chemistry and mathematics at Providence College, graduating in 1985, then earned her master's degree in mathematics at Stony Brook University, and her Ph.D. in Mathematics in1993 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She taught for a number of years at University of Montana before transitioning to associate dean in UMs College of Humanities and Sciences in 2010. She held that position for eight years before becoming the interim dean and then transferring to UMs Western campus to serve as the interim provost for a year before accepting her current role at UAA. In 2018, she traveled to the University of Gondar in Ethiopia as a Fulbright Scholar, working with mathematicians there on curriculum design, mentoring a new group of female faculty with little prior teaching experience that the university had recently hired.

Slides - https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/pgy7s0admetbx7igmgozf/CAS-Overview-2025.pdf?rlkey=pbxspxj0qwczud6bb6oe5uu29&dl=0