Anchorage Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Forum Podcasts

Send us Fan Mail Kay Brown is a former state official, political strategist and media specialist who moved to Alaska in 1976.  Kay has broad experience in political, non-profit and public arenas, including 10 years of service as an Alaska State Representative.  After leaving the legislature, she helped assemble and lead a large coalition of Alaska environmental groups, the Alaska Conservation Alli...

Send us Fan Mail 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 graduat...

Send us Fan Mail 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...

Send us Fan Mail Tim Bradner is 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...

Send us Fan Mail 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 th...

Send us Fan Mail 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...

Send us Fan Mail 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. ...

Send us Fan Mail 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 o...

Send us Fan Mail 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...

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Send us Fan Mail Harlow Robinson is Founding Member of the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame. He has been involved with Healthy Futures since 2006, initially serving as an advisory board member, and since 2012 serving as its Executive Director. Prior to his current position, Harlow worked with at-risk youth for 15 years as a direct care staff, supervisor and manager. He has served on numerous boards and...

Send us Fan Mail This Sunday the Forum celebrated National Poetry Month by hearing about and listening to poetry of Alaska Poet Laureate Tom Sexton, who died last month. Hear a variety of readers, and maybe a surprise or two. choral music piece used to set five of Tom’s poems to music - https://libbylarsen.com/works/alaska-spring/ Poems read during choral music - https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/32k...

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Royce Fitts is a holistic and clinical psychotherapist, a licensed marriage and family therapist, a certified dream worker, and a liberal theologian with a doctorate in ministry. He is the author of The Geography of the Soul: Dreams, Reality and the Journey of a Lifetime, which blends memoir, political and social consciousness, and spiritual wisdom and explores relationships b...

Send us Fan Mail Liz Ruskin is the Washington, D.C., correspondent for Alaska Public Media. She covers the state's congressional delegation, public lands, and resource development policy from the nation's capital and Anchorage. She has worked at Alaska Public Media since 2013. She previously worked at the Anchorage Daily News and started her career at the Homer News. She graduated from W...

Send us Fan Mail Brad Hillwig is an award-winning filmmaker, journalist, and communications professional driven by the art of innovative storytelling. During a career in Alaska media that spans more than two decades, Brad has developed and produced television shows for U.S. cable networks, created brand-defining commercial campaigns, and directed documentaries in some of Alaska's most remote...

Send us Fan Mail Meg Parsons was born and raised in Berkeley, California, in the 50s-60s.  She enjoyed what the city and state provided for education and uprearing.   She received a BA from Humboldt State College.  She left the wet weather and logging industry of the Pacific Northwest to come to Alaska for the summer in 1975, ended up in Homer, and is still smitten with the beauty and spirit of Al...

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Jack Hickel is the Board President of the Alaska Health Project South Sudan. Jack was born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska. He has an MD degree and is board-certified with the American Board of Family Medicine.  Jack has a Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Diploma from the Republic of South Africa. He worked in Eswatini, Africa, for 16 years, from 1982 to 1997. While there, he was...

Send us Fan Mail Molly Southworth is an endocrinologist, retired from the Alaska Tribal Health System, a Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine, and Adjunct Professor of Medical Education at the University of Alaska Anchorage / WWAMI. She is also the Past Regent of the American College of Physicians. Molly graduated from Case Western Reserve School of Med...

Send us Fan Mail Suzanne LaFrance was elected as the mayor of Anchorage in 2024. Before becoming mayor, she represented South Anchorage on the Anchorage Assembly from 2017 to 2023. She served as Assembly Chair from 2021 to 2023, was Chair of the Assembly's Budget and Finance Committee, and Co-Chair of its Health Policy Committee. She also served on the board of the Alaska Municipal League. Sh...

Send us Fan Mail Mike Huelsman i s a community activist and advocate. He came to Alaska as a VISTA Volunteer in 1966, served in the combat infantry on the DMZ in Korea, and then worked as a commercial fisherman, carpenter, and laborer in Alaska until he found permanent work. He helped prisoners leaving jail with finding work and housing while working for the Division of Corrections. He was a grant...

Send us Fan Mail Tim Toll has served for the past twenty years as Executive Director of the Bristol Bay Heritage Land Trust, an organization he helped start in Dillingham in 2000.  Celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, the land trust owns or holds conservation easements on 58,412 acres in Bristol Bay and helped broker protection for 21,320 acres in the Wood Tikchik State Park. Tim came to Al...

Send us Fan Mail Erin Jackson-Hill is Executive Director of Stand Up Alaska, one of the state’s only BIPOC women-led social justice organizations. Her advocacy is mainly focused on issues that disproportionately affect minority communities. She’s a proud alumna of Wonder Park Elementary, Wendler Jr. High School, and Bettye Davis East Anchorage High School. Her rich and diverse experience in nonpro...

Send us Fan Mail Ben Robinson is the General Director of Anchorage Opera, the Artistic Director of Raylynmor Opera (New Hampshire), and the Managing Director of Lyric Fest (Philadelphia). He works as a director, librettist, educator, and arts administrator. As a stage director, he is best known for his inspired and engaging storytelling in diverse works ranging from Baroque to modern. He directed...

Send us Fan Mail Steve Lindbeck has enjoyed a 45-year career in Alaska journalism, public affairs, and non-profit management. He served as CEO & General Manager for Alaska Public Media, Vice Chancellor for Advancement at the University of Alaska Anchorage, Associate Editor of the Anchorage Daily News, and Executive Director of the Alaska Humanities Forum, among other roles. In 2016, he spent a...

Send us Fan Mail Justin Ruffridgge was elected to the Alaska House of Representatives in 2022 to serve the Kenai/Soldotna area and was re-elected in November 2024. He expects to serve on the Health and Social Services Committee in the coming session. His parents, both educators, moved their family to Alaska in 1994, where they taught at a small Christian school. Justin graduated from high school i...